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THE 

MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS 
MASSACRE 

By  JOSIAH   F.  GIBBS 

Al'THOR    OF  "LIGHTS   AND    SHADOWS   OF   MORMONI.vM'1 


LOOK  INC  SO 


">iirt\    Emigrant?       Victui. 

'/-:tv,  September  i(nh,    / 


ILLUSTRATED    BY    NINE    FULL-PAGE 

AND   FIVE   HALF-PAGE    ENGRAVINGS 

FROM    PHOTOGRAPHS  TAKEN 

ON  THE   GROUND 


COPYRIGHTED    BY 

SALT  LAKE  TRIBUNE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
NINETEEN  HUNDRED  TEN 


THE 

MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS 
MASSACRE 


By    JOSIAH    Fi    GIBBS 

Author  of 
"Lights  and  Shadows  of  Mormonism" 


ILLUSTRATED  BY  XINK 
FULL-PAGE  AND  FIVE 
HALF-PAGE  ENGRAVINGS 

FROM   PHOTOGRAPHS 
TAKEN  ON  THE  GROUND 


COPYRIGHTED   BY 

SALT  LAKE  TRIBUNE  PUBLISHING  Co, 

NINETEEN  HUNDRED  TEN 


FS35 


NOTE  TO  SECOND  AND  FUTURE  EDITIONS 


Because  of  the  faulty  memory  of  an  aged  Mormon,  who  gave  me  the 
of  Isaac  Laney  as  that  of  the  man  who  was  brutally  beaten  at 
Parowan,  in  southwestern  Utah,  because  he  sold  a  few  onions  to  the  emi- 
grants who  perished  at  the  Mountain  Meadows,  a  slight  error  crept  into 
the  first  edition  of  "The  Mountain  Meadows  Massacre." 

Since  its  publication  I  have  been  most  fortunate  in  meeting  a  wealthy 
man,  now  residing  at  Oakland,  California,  who  lived  next  door  to  Wil- 
liam Laney  at  Parowan  at  the  time  of  the  massacre,  and  from  him  learned 
the  truth  of  the  incident.  His  recollection  of  that  incident  has  been  veri- 
fied by  reference  to  a  letter  received  a  year  ago  from  Judge  James  S. 
Aden  of  Tennessee,  whose  brother  was  a  victim  of  the  religion-crazed 
fanatics  who  exterminated  Captain  Charles  Fancher's  companions  at  the 
Mountain  Meadows.  Judge  Aden's  recollection  of  Laney 's  name  was 
DeLaney.  And  because  of  the  fact  that  I  could  learn  nothing  of  any  man 
by  that  name  the  Judge's  interesting  story  of  how  his  father  aided  Wil- 
liam Laney,  while  the  latter  was  a  Mormon  missionary,  and  how  his 
.brother  was  entertained  by  William  Laney  at  Parowan,  and  given  a  few 
onions,  was  omitted  from  the  first  edition.  It  is  now  given  in  full.  Also, 
at  the  recent  Mormon  general  conference,  I  met  the  nephew  of  William 
Laney,  and  who  told  me  that  it  was  his  uncle  instead  of  his  father,  Isaac 
Laney,  who  lived  at  Parowan. 

The  above  explanation  has  been  given  for  purpose  of  disarming  Mor- 
mon critics  who  are  ever  alert  to  even  the  slightest  discrepancies  that 
may  find  their  way  into  the  writings  of  those  who  presume  to  criticise 
the  conduct  and  motives  of  the  Mormon  leaders.  JOSIAH  F.  GIBBS. 

Salt  Lake  City,  Utah,  October  17th,  1910. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Some  five  years  ago  a  prWinent  Salt  Lake  editor,  in  a  letter  to  the 
writer,  said:  "The  Mountain  Meadows  massacre  is  an  incident  that 
should  be  forgotten."  The  gentleman,  a  well-known  Gentile,  was  in 
error,  the  human  family  learns  only  by  experience.  The  lessons  taught 
by  the  tragedies  of  the  past  come  down  to  us  in  the  form  of  history  and 
become  danger  signals  along  the  highway  of  advancing  civilization,  and 
warn  us  of  the  peril  that  marches  hand  in  hand  with  human  passions, 
with  ignorance  and  superstition. 

Speaking  specifically,  the  Mountain  Meadows  massacre  should  not  be 
forgotten  as- long  as  Mormon  writers,  pulpiteers  and  missionaries  use  the 
"Missouri  Persecutions,"  the  "Martyrdom  of  Joseph  and  Hyrum  Smith," 
and  the  "Expulsion  of  the  Saints  from  Nauvoo"  as  influences  for  prose- 
lyting. Nor  should  the  discussion  of  any  prominent  tragedy  cease  until 
the  causes  that  unerringly  led  up  to  the  act  shall  have  been  eradicated, 
or  until  the  lesson  that  it  teaches  is  no  longer  necessary.  The  Mountain 
Meadows  massacre  should  be  kept  before  the  public  until  unquestioning 
obedience  to  the  will  of  the  Mormon  "prophets"  shall  be  no  longer  ex- 
acted from  the  Mormon  people,  or  until  its  deadening,  damning  influence 
is  exterminated.  Those  who  suggest  such  lapses  of  memory  as  that  sug- 
gested by  the  Salt  Lake  editor  do  so  in  the  interest  of  "peace  in  Utah," 
a  "peace"  that  would  be  purchased  by  the  surrender  of  justice  to  in- 
justice, of  right  to  wrong,  of  the  present  to  the  future — a  surrender  in 
Utah  of  moral  progress  and  civil  liberty  to  mercenary  advantages  and 
political  bribes  held  out  by  the  "prophets"  and  the  Mormon  and  pro- 
Mormon  press  as  the  price  of  silence. 


AGENCIES  OF  WHICH  THE  MASSACRE  WAS  THE  LOGICAL 

RESULT. 

The  details  of  the  Mountain  Meadows  massacre  have  been  repeatedly 
told.  Embittered  Mormon  "apostates"  and  greedy  romancers  have  dis- 
torted the  awful  incidents;  Mormon  historians  and  subsidized  writers 
have  submerged  the  truth  and  endeavored  to  shift  the  burthen  of  the 
terrible  crime  to  the  Indians;  and  thus  far  none  of  them  have,  seem- 
ingly, been  able  to  grasp  the  elusive  forces  that  unerringly  led  up  to  the 
tragedy,  or  they  have  failed  to  state  them. 

With  malice  toward  none,  least  of  all  toward  the  misguided  assassins, 
and  in  a  spirit  of  even-handed  justice,  the  attempt  will  be  made  to  as- 
semble the  fragments  of  causation  and  history  and  join  them  together  in 
a  consecutive  narrative. 

And  it  is  well  to  here  remark  that  the  story  of  the  massacre  is  largely 
drawn  from  the  evidence  of  unwilling  Mormon  witnesses  who  testified 
during  the  second  trial  of  John  D.  Lee;  from  close  personal  contact  with 
the  religious  and  social  life  of  Utah  from  1857  to  the  present  time;  from 
an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  people  of  southern  Utah,  and  from  a 
personal  study  of  the  locality  known  as  the  Mountain  Meadows. 

An  intelligible  grasp  of  the  remarkable  religious  and  social  condi- 
tions that  existed  in  Utah  just  prior  to  the  massacre,  and  of  which  it 
was  one  of  the  logical  results,  cannot  be  imparted  without  quoting  from 
the  sermons  of  some  of  the  Mormon  "prophets."  And  it  is  a  fact  well 
known  to  Mormon  leaders  and  historians  that  the  expulsion  of  the 
Latter-day  Saints  from  Missouri,  the  killing  of  Joseph  and  Hyrum  Smith, 
and  the  expulsion  of  the  church  from  Illinois  were  but  the  logical  results 
of  the  "revelations,"  sermons  and  writings  of  the  Mormon  leaders,  and 
which  inspired  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Mormons  with  grotesquely  exag- 
gerated views  of  the  religious  and  political  mission  of  Mormonism,  and  of 
their  own  importance. 

Following  are  excerpta  from  a  few  of  the  "prophets'  "  sermons: 

"God  made  Aaron  to  be  the  mouthpiece  of  the  children  of  Israel, 
and  he  will  make  me  to  ,be  God  to  you  in  his  stead,  and  the  elders  to 
be  mouth  for  me;  and  if  you  don't  like  it  you  must  lump  it." — From 
sermon  by  the  "Prophet"  Joseph  Smith,  Jr.,  Nauvoo,  April,  1844;  clipped 
from  the  Mormon  Deseret  News  of  July  15,  1857. 


"The  first  principle  of  our  cause  and  work  is  to  understand  that 
there  is  a  prophet  in  the  church,  and  that  he  is  at  the  head  of  the  Church 
of  Christ  on  earth.  Who  called  Joseph  Smith  to  be  a  prophet?  Did  the 
people  or  God?  God,  and  not  the  people,  called  him.  Had  the  people 
gathered  together  and  appointed  one  of  their  number  to  be  a  prophet,  he 
would  have  been  accountable  to  the  people,  but,  inasmuch  as  he  was 
called  of  God,  and  not  by  the  people,  he  is  accountable  to  God  only  .  . 
.  .  and  not  to  any  man  on  earth.  The  twelve  apostles  are  accountable 
to  the  prophet  and  not  to  the  church  for  the  course  they  pursue,  and  we 
have  learned  to  go  and  do  as  the  prophet  tells  us." — From  sermon  by 
Brigham  Young,  at  Nauvoo,  1843,  published  in  Millennial  Star,  Liverpool, 
England,  Vol.  XXL,  page  741. 


"The  fact  of  the  matter  is,  when  a  man  says  'you  can  direct  me 
spiritually,  but  not  temporally,'  he  lies  in  the  presence  of  God;  that  is,  if 
he  has  got  intelligence  enough  to  know  what  he  is  talking  about." — 
From  sermon  by  Joseph  F.  Smith  (the  present-day  Mormon  "prophet") 
at  Provo,  Utah;  from  the  Deseret  News,  May  20,  1896. 


The  above  quotations  prove  beyond  the  possibility  of  successful  con- 
tradiction that  the  "prophets"  of  the  Mormon  church  are,  if  their  claims 
be  accepted,  vicegerents  of  God,  that  they  act  "in  his  stead";  that 
those  of  the  Mormon  people  who  deny  the  right  of  the  "prophets"  to 
"direct"  them  "temporally,"  "lie  in  the  presence  of  God,"  and  that 
the  "prophets"  are  "accountable  to  God  only,  and  not  to  any  man  on 
earth."  Also  from  President  Brigham  Young  we  learn  that  "we  (the 
Mormons)  have  learned  to  go  and  do  as  the  prophet  tells  us." 

The  subserviency  of  even  the  apostles  of  the  Mormon  church  is  well 
illustrated  in  the  following: 

"Now,  whatever  I  might  have  obtained  in  the  shape  of  learning,  by 
searching  and  study  respecting  the  arts  and  sciences  of  men — whatever 
principles  I  may  have  imbibed  during  my  scientific  researches,  yet,  if  the 
prophet  of  God  should  tell  me  that  a  certain  principle  or  theory  which  I 
might  have  learned  was  not  true,  I  do  not  care  what  my  ideas  might  have 
been,  I  should  consider  it  my  duty,  at  the  suggestion  of  my  file  leader,  to 
abandon  that  principle  or  theory." — From  sermon  by  Apostle  Wilford 
Woodruff  at  Salt  Lake  City,  April  9,  1857,  recorded  in  Journal  of  Dis- 
courses, Vol.  I.,  page  83. 

And  in  the  face  of  the  plain  assertions  of  their  leaders  the  Mormon 
people  deny  that  they  are  ruled  spiritually  and  temporally  by  one  man — 
that  they  are  slaves  to  the  dicta  of  one  man  who  claims  to  rule  them 
by  the  authority  and  in  the  name  and  stead  of  God!.  But  when,  the 
dupes  of  the  Mormon  "prophets"  deny  that  self-evident  fact  they  should 
remember  that  they  "lie  in  the  presence  of  God." 

DOCTRINE  OF  "BLOOD  ATONEMENT"  AND  ITS  EESULTS. 

Necessarily,  the  believer  in  unquestioning  obedience  to  the  dictum 
of  one  man,  or  his  agent  or  agents,  is  a  fanatic,  and  there  is  not  a 

6 


devout  Mormon  on  earth  who  would  not  commit  murder  if  he  were 
ordered  to  do  so  by  the  chief  "prophet"  or  one  of  his  agents  in  whom 
he  had  confidence.  If  he  would  not  obey  the  order  then  he  is  not  a 
"firm  believer  in  the  (Mormon)  faith."  The  voice  of  the  "prophet"  is 
the  voice  of  God  to  him,  and  he  has  no  alternative  but  to  "go  and  do 
as  he  is  told."  Otherwise,  "he  lies  in  the  presence  of  God." 

And  the  reader  will  readily  comprehend  the  awful  significance  of  the 
combination  of  blind  obedience  and  the  doctrine  of  blood  atonement,  or 
the  doctrine  that  one  must  submit  to  capital  punishment  for  certain 
offenses  which,  as  the  Mormon  "prophets"  claim,  were  not  included  in 
the  atonement  of  the  Son  of  God.  Add  to  that  combination  the  fact 
that  those  blood  atonement  executions  are  to  be  carried  out  under  the 
authority  of  the  leader  of  a  religious  organization,  and  not  under  any 
civil  process,  and  one  will  have  a  partial  perception  of  the  conditions 
that  existed  in  Utah  under  the  rule  of  the  "prophets"  from  their  occupa- 
tion of  Utah,  in  1847,  to  1880.  Mormons  deny  the  existence  of  those  con- 
ditions, but  they  will  not  deny  the  accuracy  of  the  following  quotations: 

"There  is  not  a  man  or  woman  who  violates  the  covenants  made  with 
their  God  (in  the  Mormon  temples),  that  will  not  be  required  to  pay  the 
debt.  The  blood  of  Christ  will  never  wipe  that  out,  your  own  blood  must 
atone  for  it;  and  the  judgments  of  the  Almighty  will  come,  sooner  or 
later,  and  every  man  or  woman  will  have  to  atone  for  breaking  their 
covenants." — From  sermon  by  Brigham  Young,  March  16,  1856,  Journal 
of  Discourses,  Vol.  III.,  page  247. 


"What  do  you  suppose  they  would  say  in  old  Massachusetts  should 
they  hear  that  the  Latter-day  Saints  had  received  a  revelation  or  com- 
mandment to  Hay  judgment  to  the  line  and  righteousness  to  the  plum- 
met'? What  would  they  say  in  old  Connecticut?  They  would  raise  a 
universal  howl  of  '  how  wicked  the  Mormons  are.  They  are  killing  the 
evildoers  who  are  among  them.  Why,  I  hear  that  they  kill  the  wicked 
away  up  yonder  in  Utah.'  .  .  .  What  do  I  care  for  the  wrath  of 
man?  No  more  than  I  do  for  the  chickens  that  run  in  my  dooryard.  I 
am  here  to  teach  the  ways  of  the  Lord,  and  lead  men  to  life  everlasting; 
but  if  they  have  not  a  mind  to  go  there,  I  wish  them  to  keep  out  of  my 
path." — From  sermon  by  Brigham  Young  in  1855,  Journal  of  Discourses, 
Vol.  III.,  page  50. 


"If  any  miserable  scoundrels  come  here,  cut  their  throats." — From 
red  hot  blood  atonement  sermon  by  Brigham  Young,  Journal  of  Dis- 
courses, Vol.  II.,  page  311.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  injunction  to  "cut 
their  throats,"  "all  the  people  said  'amen!'  " 


"I  would  ask  how  many  covenant  breakers  there  are  in  this  city  and 

7 


in  this  kingdom  (the  Mormon  'kingdom  of  God')?  I  believe  that  there 
are  a  great  many;  and  if  they  are  covenant  breakers,  we  need  a  place 
designated  where  we  can  shed  their  blood.  ...  If  any  of  you  ask,  do 
I  mean  you,  I  answer  yes.  If  any  woman  asks,  do  I  mean  her,  I  answer 
yes.  .  .  .  We  have  been  trying  long  enough  with  these  people,  and  I 
go  in  for  letting  the  sword  of  the  Almighty  be  unsheathed,  not  only  in 
word  but  in  deed." — From  sermon  by  Jedediah  M.  Grant,  second  coun- 
selor to  Brigham  Young,  Journal  of  Discourses,  Vol.  IV.,  pp.  49-50. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  give  the  details  of  the  blood  atonement  murder 
of  William  E.  Parrish  and  his  son  Beason  for  "apostasy,"  at  Springville, 
in  1856;  of  the  murder  of  Kosmos  Anderson  by  the  leading  priesthood  of 
the  Parowan  "stake  of  Zion".  in  1856,  because  Philip  Klingensmith, 
bishop  of  Cedar  City,  Utah,  coveted  the  buxom  Scandinavian  stepdaugh- 
ter of  Anderson  as  his  plural  wife,  and  whom  Anderson  also  wanted  as 
his  plural,  and  with  whom,  as  alleged,  he  had  committed  adultery  as  the 
last  and  surest  effort  to  secure  a  "recommend"  to  enter  the  "holy  order 
of  celestial  marriage";  of  the  castration  of  Tom  Lewis,  at  Manti,  Utah, 
in  1856,  because  Bishop  Warren  Snow  was  lecherously  ambitious  to  polyg- 
amously  marry  the  girl  with  whom  Lewis  was  keeping  company;  of  the 
inexpressibly  cowardly  murder  of  William  Hatton  at  Fillmore,  1856,  by  a 
man  who  could  be  named,  and  who  was  the  agent  of  the  "prophets,  seers 
and  revelators"  at  Salt  Lake  City,  and  whose  handsome  widow  the  un- 
speakable "Prophet"  Heber  C.  Kimball  soon  after  added  to  his  celestial 
harem;  of  the  murder,  by  prophetic  instructions,  at  Farmington,  during 
the  spring  of  1858,  of  four  of  the  Aiken  party,  and  while  "Johnston's" 
army  at  Ham's  Fork  was  preparing  to  enter  Utah,  and  of  the  cowardly 
assassination  of  two  others  of  the  Aiken  party  by  a  present  high  church- 
man and  his  companion,  who,  under  pretense  of  conducting  them  from 
Utah  by  the  southern  route  to  California,  shot  them  in  the  back  at  a  point 
some  four  or  five  miles  south  of  Nephi,  about  110  miles  south  of  Salt  Lake 
City;  of  the  midnight  murder,  later  on,  of  King,  Brassfield  and  others 
who  became  obnoxious  to  the  Mormon  leaders.  This  is  an  abbreviated  his- 
tory of  the  Mountain  Meadows  massacre — no't  of  the  entire  diabolical  re- 
sults of  the  teaching  of  unquestioning  obedience  and  blood  atonement  by 
the  vicegerents  of  the  Mormon  god. 

Any  one  with  ordinary  intelligence  can  comprehend  the  terrible  re- 
sults of  the  license  to  murder  which  is  embraced  in  the  excerpta  that  have 
been  quoted  from  the  bloodthirsty  sermons  of  two  of  the  chief  "proph- 
ets" of  the  Mormon  church. 

The  preaching  of  blood  atonement  was  accompanied  by  two  years — 
1856-1857 — of  hysterical  repentance  called  the  Mormon  "reformation." 
The  larger  portion  of  the  "Saints"  confessed  their  sins  to  the  "block 
teachers,"  to  the  "ward  bishops,"  or,  as  in  many  instances,  to  Brigham 
Young,  to  whom  many  of  the  sinful  Saints  went  with  their  tales  of 
iniquity.  It  was  a  time  of  confession,  of  the  "renewal  of  covenants" 
by  rebaptism,  and  the  intensification  of  indescribable  fanaticism,  frenzy 
and  violence. 


The  reason  for  those  violent  outbreaks  on  the  part  of  the  ''prophets" 
is  alleged  to  have  been  the  effect  of  the  unrestrained  liberty,  even  license, 
of  frontier  life,  which  affects  alike  the  saint  and  the  sinner;  the  latter, 
of  course,  .being  the  more  willing  victim.  Even  some  of  the  "saints  of 
the  Most  High'5  descended  to  stealing  and  worse  crimes.  That,  and  the 
influx  of  traders,  trappers  and  others  not  of  the  Mormon  faith,  created 
apprehension  on  the  part  of  the  "prophets"  that  the  "kingdom  of  God," 
which  they  had  ' '  established  in  the  top  of  the  mountains, ' '  would  perish 
because  of  the  iniquity  of  the  people. 

It  was  the  hope  that  it  might  check  the  carnival  of  crime  that 
prompted  the  Mormon  leaders  to  inaugurate  the  "reformation."  No 
truthful  history  of  the  religious  hysteria,  frenzy,  fanaticism  and  diabolism 
of  those  early  days  in  Utah  has  ever  been  written.  It  was  as  if  civiliza- 
tion had  been  forced  backward  four  hundred  years  with  the  spirit  and 
practice  of  the  Inquisition  in  full  control. 

Another  condition  that  added  to  the  frenzy  of  the  "prophets"  was 
the  presence  of  federal  officials  who  attempted  to  enforce  the  "common 
law"  in  cases  of  polygamy,  and  who  were  regarded  as  usurpers  of  the 
divine  right  of  Brigham  Young  to  be  a  despot.  The  conflict  between  the 
civil  law,  represented  by  the  government  officials,  and  the  ecclesiastical 
rule  of  Brigham  Young  became  so  acute  that  the  Gentile  officials  fled  the 
territory.  In  order  to  aid  its  officials  in  the  enforcement  of  the  law  the 
government,  in  the  spring  of  1857,  dispatched  an  army  of  2500  men  to 
Utah,  which  further  incensed  the  Mormon  leaders  and  their  followers 
against  the  government  and  against  all  Gentiles  within  and  without  the 
Mormon  empire.  ' 

As  governor  of  Utah,  and  vicegerent  of  the  Mormon  deity,  Brigham 
Young  issued  a  proclamation,  of  which  three  paragraphs  only  are  neces- 
sary: 

"Therefore,  I,  Brigham  Young,  governor  and  superintendent  of  In- 
dian affairs  for  the  Territory  of  Utah, 

"  Firsts-Forbid  all  armed  forces  of  every  description  from  coming  into 
this  territory,  under  any  pretense  whatever. 

"Second — That  all  the  forces  in  said  territory  hold  themselves  in 
readiness  to  march  at  a  moment 's  notice,  to  repel  any  and  all  such 
invasion. 

1 '  Third — Martial  law  is  hereby  declared  to  exist  in  this  territory, 
from  and  after  the  publication  of  this  proclamation;  and  no  person  shall 
be  allowed  to  pass  or  repass,  into  or  through,  or  from  this  territory  with- 
out a  permit  from  the  proper  officer." 

That  the  Mormon  leaders  were  determined  to  make  desperate  resist- 
ance to  the  entry  of  the  federal  troops  is  proved  by  the  following  self- 
explanatory  letter: 

"Great  Salt  Lake  City,  Sept.  14th,  1857. 

"Colonel  William. H.  Dame,  Parowan,  Iron  county: 
"Herewith  you  will   receive   the  governor's  proclamation  declaring 
martial  law. 


"You  will  probably  not  be  called  out  this  fall,  but  are  requested  to 
continue  to  make  ready  for  a  big  fight  another  year.  The  plan  of  opera- 
tions is  supposed  to  be  about  this.  In  case  the  United  States  government 
should  send  out  an  overpowering  force,  we  intend  to  desolate  the  terri- 
tory, and  conceal  our  families,  stock  and  all  our  effects  in  the  fastnesses 
of  the  mountains,  where  they  will  be  safe,  while  the  men  waylay  our 
enemies,  attack  them  from  ambush,  stampede  their  animals,  take  the  sup- 
ply trains,  cut  off  the  detachments  and  parties  sent  to  the  canyons  for 
wood,  or  on  other  service.  To  lay  waste  everything  that  will  burn — 
houses,  fences,  fields  and  grass,  so  that  they  cannot  find  a  particle  of 
anything  that  will  be  of  use  to  them,  not  even  sticks  to  make  a  fire  to 
cook  their  supplies.  To  waste  away  our  enemies  and  to  lose  none;  that 
will  be  our  mode  of  warfare.  Thus  you  will  see  the  necessity  of  prepar- 
ing, first,  secure  places  in  the  mountains  where  they  cannot  find  us,  or, 
if  they  do,  where  they  cannot  approach  in  force,  and  then  prepare  for  our 
families,  building  some  cabins,  caching  flour  and  grain.  .  .  .  Concil- 
iate the  Indians  and  make  them  our  fast  friends. 

"In  regard  to  letting  the  people  pass  and  repass,  or  travel  through 
the  territory,  this  applies  to  all  strangers  and  suspected  persons.  Your- 
self and  Brother  Isaac  C.  Haight,  in  your  districts,  are  authorized  to 
give  such  permits.  Examine  all  such  persons  before  giving  them  such 
permits  to  pass.  Keep  things  perfectly  quiet,  and  let  all  things  be  done 
peacefully,  but  with  firmness,  and  let  there  be  no  excitement.  Let  the 
people  be  united  in  their  feelings  and  faith,  as  well  as  works,  and  keep 
alive  the  spirit  of  reformation.  And  what  we  said  in  regard  to  saving  the 
grain  and  provisions  we  say  again.  We  do  not  wish  to  shed  a  drop  of 
blood  if  it  can  be  avoided. 

' '  This  course  will  give  us  great  influence  abroad. 

(Signed)  ' '  BRIGHAM  YOUNG  (Prophet) ; 

1 '  DANIEL  H.  WELLS  (Lieutenant  General . 

' '  Certified   to   under   seal  by  James   Jack,   notary  public,   August   16, 
1876." 


Brigham  Young's  letter  to  Dame  is  a  curious  mixture  of  governor  of 
Utah  and  king  of  the  Mormon  "kingdom  of  God" — a  blending  of  the 
civil  and  ecclesiastic  authority,  as  was  intended  by  the  founders  of  Mor- 
monism. 

It  should  be  particularly  noted  that  Bishop  Colonel  Dame  and  Presi- 
dent Colonel  Haight  were  authorized,  as  military  and  ecclesiastical 
authorities,  in  their  districts,  to  issue  "permits'5  to  "pass  or  repass" 
through  the  territory. 

It  will  be  observed  that  President  Young's  letter  to  Dame  bears  date 
of  September  14,  while  the  date  of  the  proclamation  is  that  of  September 
15.  In  the  discussion  between  Haight  and  John  D.  Lee  on  the  night  of 
about  September  3,  it  is  alleged  by  the  latter  that  Haight  told  him  that 
the  massacre  of  the  emigrants  "is  the  will  of  all  in  authority.  The  emi- 

10 


grants  have  no  pass  from  any  one  to  go  through  the  country,  and  they 
are  liable  to  be  killed  as  common  enemies,  for  the  country  is  at  war  now. 
No  man  has  a  right  to  go  through  this  country  without  a  written  pass." 

The  conversation  between  Haight  and  Lee  occurred  about  twelve 
days  before  the  proclamation  is  alleged  to  have  been  promulgated.  Pres- 
ident Young  received  word  on  the  24th  of  July,  1857,  that  Johnston's 
army  was  en  route  to  Utah,  and  it  is  unbelievable  that  the  astute  Brigham 
would  have  waited  until  September  15  to  issue  his  "proclamation"  de- 
claring the  existence  of  "martial  law." 

Under  all  the  circumstances  it  is  not  an  injustice  to  charge  that, 
after  the  massacre,  the  date  of  the  proclamation  was  changed  from  August 
to  September  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  the  plain  evidence  that  the 
massacre  of  the  emigrants  was  authorized  by  the  proclamation,  inasmuch 
as  the  emigrants  had  no  "permit"  to  pass  through  the  territory. 


11 


THE  DOOMED  ARKANSAS  COMPANY. 

Little  is  known  of  the  personnel  of  Fancher 's  company.  No  doubt 
the  larger  number  was  from  Arkansas.  There  were  many  from  Missouri, 
and  a  few  from  other  states. 

William  Eaton,  whose  niece  is  living  in  Salt  Lake  City,  was  a  native 
of  Indiana.  During  the  early  fifties  he  went  to  Illinois,  where  he  secured 
a  farm.  Early  in  1857  he  met  some  men  from  Arkansas  who  were  visiting 
relatives  in  Illinois  preparatory  to  moving  to  California  with  the  Fancher 
company.  Eaton  sold  his  farm,  took  his  wife  and  little  daughter  back  to 
Indiana,  and  joined  the  company  in  Arkansas.  The  last  letter  received 
by  Mrs.  Eaton  from  her  husband  stated  that  all  was  well,  but  subse- 
quently she  learned  that  the  company  had  been  exterminated. 

William  A.  Aden,  another  of  the  victims,  was  born  in  Tennessee,  and 
was  about  twenty  years  old  at  the  time  of  the  massacre.  A  recent  letter 
from  his  brother,  James  S.  Aden  of  Paris,  Henry  county,  Tennessee,  states 
that  his  brother  was  an  artist,  and  relates  an  interesting  incident  that 
occurred  in  Paris  several  years  prior  to  his  brother's  departure  for  Cali- 
fonia,  and  which  forms  the  basis  for  another  interesting  incident  at  Paro- 
wan,  Utah. 

William  Laney,  a  Mormon  elder  from  Utah,  was  proselyting  in  the 
vicinity  of  Paris.  He  secured  the  courthouse  and  proceeded  to  expound 
Mormonism.  A  number  of  mischievous  lads,  among  whom  was  William 
A.  Aden,  pushed  a  small  cannon  to  the  rear  of  the  courthouse,  and  while 
Elder  Laney  was  preaching  the  boys  discharged  the  small  piece  of  ord- 
nance. Elder  Laney  thought  that  an  armed  mob  was  upon  him.  He 
abruptly  discontinued  his  discourse,  ran  from  the  building  and  sought  safe- 
ty in  hurried  flight.  On  his  mad  race  out  of  town  he  met  the  father  of 
young  Aden,  who  took  him  home  and  cared  for  him  during  the  elder's 
stay  in  the  vicinity. 

Early  in  1857  young  Aden  left  Tennessee  for  California.  He  sketched 
scenery  along  the  route,  and  on  his  arrival  in  Utah  went  on  to  Provo, 
about  47  miles  south  of  Salt  Lake  City,  where  he  did  some  scenic  paint- 
ing for  the  Provo  Dramatic  association.  On  the  arrival  of  the  doomed 
Arkansas  company  he  joined  them  and  went  on  to  the  Mountain  Meadows. 

Frank  E.  King  and  wife  traveled  with  the  Fancher  company  from 
Pacific  Springs,  Wyoming,  to  Salt  Lake  City,  where,  owing  to  the  sickness 
of  Mrs.  King,  he  was  compelled  to  remain  until  December  4,  when  he 
went  on  to  Beaver,  210  miles  south  of  Salt  Lake  City,  and  thus  escaped 
the  fate  that  lurked  for  the  company  in  southern  Utah. 

The  author  of  this  story  of  the  massacre  is  indebted  to  Mr.  Frank  E. 
King  for  much  interesting  data  relative  to  the  company,  and  of  his  expe- 
rience in  Utah  about  the  time  of  the  massacre,  and  will,  therefore,  in- 
troduce him  more  fully  to  the  reader. 

On  Mr.  King's  arrival  in  Beaver  the  bishop  of  the  ward  advised  him 

12 


to  remain  during  the  winter  as  the  Indians,  after  the  massacre,  were 
more  than  usually  hostile  toward  Gentiles.  Mr.  King  remained  during 
the  winter,  and,  notwithstanding  the  friendliness  of  the  bishop,  was 
twice  ordered  to  move  on  by  some  of  the  fanatics.  On  May  15  Mr.  King 
again  started  for  southern  California,  and  reached  Cedar  City  on  the  17th. 
Quoting  from  Mr.  King's  letter,  he  says: 

"I  had  not  unhitched  my  team  when  John  M.  Higbee  and  Elias 
Morris,  second  counselor  to  Isaac  C.  Haight,  ordered  me  to  leave  before 
the  sun  rose  the  next  morning." 

Mr.  King  regarded  the  order  as  ominous,  and  returned  to  central 
Utah.  After  living  in  Manti  and  other  towns  he  joined  the  first  colony 
of  settlers  in  Marysvale,  Piute  county,  Utah,  where  he  resided  until  some 
five  years  ago,  when  he  moved  to  Grant's  Pass,  Oregon. 

Although  the  writer's  intimate  acquaintance  with  Mr.  King  extended 
over  a  period  of  twenty-five  years,  I  never  heard  him  mention  the  Moun- 
tain Meadows  massacre,  and  knew  nothing  of  his  association  with  the  un- 
fortunate company  until  his  son,  Charles,  who  resides  in  Marysvale,  last 
winter  (1910)  told  me  that  his  father  traveled  in  Fancher's  company. 
Soon  after  the  discovery  I  wrote  to  Mr.  King  and  received  some  of  the 
information  which  is  used  in  this  history  of  the  massacre. 

There  were  certain  questions  in  dispute,  and  with  my  first  letter  to 
Mr.  King  I  inclosed  a  list  of  questions  which,  with  the  answers,  are  given 
herewith: 

Ques. — Kindly  give  the  names  of  as  many  members  of  the  company 
as  you  can  remember? 

Ans. — Fancher,  Dunlap,  Morton,  Haydon,  Hudson,  Aden,  Stevenson, 
Hamilton,  a  family  by  the  name  of  Smith  and  a  Methodist  minister. 

Ques. — Give  the  Christian  names  of  the  two  Dunlap  girls  and  their 
ages? 

Ans. — Eachel  and  Euth,  aged  sixteen  and  eighteen  years,  respectively. 

Ques. — How  many  wagons  and  carriages  in  the  train? 

Ans. — Forty. 

Ques.— How  many  men  capable  of  bearing  arms,  and  about  how  many 
women — married  and  single,  large  girls  included? 

Ans. — About  sixty  men,  forty  women  and  nearly  fifty  children. 

Ques. — About  how  many  horsemen  in  the  train? 

Ans. — About  twelve,  as  near  as  I  can  remember. 

CONDITIONS  IN  SOUTHERN  UTAH. 

The  settlements  in  Iron  and  Washington  counties  were  less  than  six 
years  old,  and  distant  240  to  more  than  300  miles  from  Salt  Lake  City. 
Mail  lines  had  not  been  established.  All  communication  with  Salt  Lake 
was  necessarily  by  special  messenger  or  by  the  slower  means  of  those  who 
occasionally  went  to  and  fro  on  business.  At  the  time  of  which  we  are 
writing  the  people  of  those  remote  southern  settlements  were  in  the 
throes  of  the  Mormon  "reformation,"  and  the  news  of  the  approach  of 
Johnston's  army  served  to  intensify  the  frenzy.  They  had  three  years' 
breadstuff  on  hand,  but  were  continually  urged  to  husband  it  for  the 
expected  "big  fight"  with  the  United  States. 

13 


JOHN    DOYLE    LEE. 


PERSONNEL  OF  THE  LEADING  ASSASSINS. 

Isaac  C.  Haight  resided  in  Cedar  City,  about  260  miles  southwesterly 
from  Salt  Lake  City,  and  forty  miles  northeasterly  from  the  Mountain 
Meadows.  He  was  president  of  the  Parowan  "stake  of  Zion,"  and  as 
such  was  the  ecclesiastical  agent  in  Iron  county  of  President  Brigham 
Young,  to  whom  all  the  presidents  of  "stakes"  reported,  and  to  whom 
they  were  directly  responsible  for  their  acts.  Haight  was  also  lieutenant 
colonel  in  the  Iron  county  militia,  and  upon  him  must  ever  rest  the  larger 
part  of  the  odium  for  the  inception  and  details  of  the  massacre. 

As  bishop  of  the  Parowan  ward  of  the  Parowan  "stake  of  Zion," 
William  H.  Dame  was  under  the  ecclesiastical  direction  of  President 
Haight.  But  as  colonel  in  command  of  the  military  district  comprising 
Iron  and  Washington  counties  Dame  was  the  military  superior  of  Haight. 

John  M.  Higbee  resided  in  Cedar  City,  was  first  counselor  to  Isaac  C. 
Haight  in  the  Parowan  "stake  of  Zion,"  and  was  major  in  the  Iron 
county  militia. 

The  practice  of  conferring  ecclesiastical,  civil  and  military  powers  on 
the  same  individual  has  been  a  distinguishing  feature  of  the  Mormon 
church  from  its  beginning  in  1830.  Joseph  Smith,  the  founder  of  Mor- 
monism,  was  at  once  the  representative  of  the  Mormon  god  upon  the 
earth,  mayor  of  Nauvoo,  and  lieutenant  general  of  the  Nauvoo  legion. 
And  just  before  his  death  in  1844,  the  Mormon  "prophet"  was  nominated 
for  president  of  the  United  States  by  the  Democrats  under  his  spiritual 
control.  And  it  is  an  inexorable  law  that  the  ecclesiastical  power  of  the 
Mormon  hierarchs  is  superior  to  that  of  the  civil  and  military  divisions, 
or  adjuncts,  of  the  church. 

And  there  is  no  doubt  that  Dame  reluctantly  became  an  abettor 
of  butchering  the  emigrants  because  of  the  fact  that  Haight  was  his  eccle- 
siastical superior. 

There  is  a  popular  and  widespread  impression  that  John  D.  Lee  was 
the  leader  and  arch  criminal  of  the  massacre.  That  is  not  true.  He 
held  no  special  office  in  the  priesthood,  but  was  farmer  to  the  Indians 
under  Superintendent  Brigham  Young.  Lee  was  a  man  of  medium  height, 
heavy  build,  and  possessed  more  than  average  intelligence.  As  an  abject 
slave  of  the  Mormon  priesthood  he  was  a  willing  tool  of  his  "file  leader'- 
in  deeds  of  violence.  Lee's  father  was  a  member  of  the  "First  Families 
of  Virginia,"  and  had  not  the  son  become  tainted  with  Mormon  super- 
stition, and  the  victim  of  the  fatuous  doctrine  of  unquestioning  obedience 
to  the  self-constituted  vicegerents  of  God,  he  would  doubtless  have  lived 
and  died  an  honored  member  of  society. 

Philip  Klingensmith  was  bishop  of  the  Cedar  ward  and  Samuel  Mc- 
Murdy  was  his  first  counselor. 

Except  in  so  far  as  it  is  necessary  in  the  discussion  of  the  details  of 
the  tragedy,  it  would  be  an  act  of  wanton  cruelty  to  name  the  others  of 
the  fifty-five  white  men  who  were  present  at  the  massacre.  The  public 
naming  of  those  men  would  serve  no  purpose,  and  would  add  unnecessary 
weight  to  the  cross  which  hundreds  of  their  innocent  descendants  are 
bearing. 

15 


The  great  majority  of  the  men  who  participated  in  that  almost  un- 
paralleled crime  were  not  murderers  in  the  generally  accepted  definition 
of  the  word.  They  were  irresponsible  victims  of  gross  superstition,  and, 
almost  without  protest,  they  stained  their  souls  with  blood  in  the  effort 
to  perform  the  will  of  God,  as  they  understood  the  order  to  commit  mur- 
der. The  execrations  of  those  now  living,  and  of  those  who  will  read  the 
story  of  the  tragedy  at  the  Mountain  Meadows  in  the  years  to  come 
should  fall  upon  those  who  taught  the  doctrine  of  unquestioning  obedience 
and  blood  atonement,  and  upon  those  present  day  "prophets,  seers  and 
revelators"  who  teach  that  a  Mormon  "lies  in  the  presence  of  God" 
when  he  declines  to  surrender  his  temporal  being  to  the  representatives 
of  an  alien  and  despotic  priesthood. 

Such  were  the  people,  and  such  were  the  conditions  that  awaited 
Captain  Fancher's  company  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  souls. 

ROUTE  OF  THE  EMIGRANTS. 

It  was  about  the  middle  of  August,  1857,  when  the  Arkansas  emi- 
grants emerged  from  Emigration  canyon  and  camped  on  Emigration 
square,  the  present  site  of  the  Salt  Lake  city  and  county  building. 

After  laying  in  such  supplies  as  could  be  obtained  in  Salt  Lake  City 
the  emigrants  proceeded  southward,  following  the  well  beaten  road  that 
stretched  out  southerly  and  then  southwesterly  to  southern  California. 

According  to  Mr.  Frank  E.  King  the  company  was  short  of  supplies 
when  they  left  Salt  Lake.  At  Nephi,  about  100  miles  south  of  Salt  Lake, 
they  made  the  attempt  to  purchase  flour  of  "Red  Bill"  Black,  who  ran 
the  flour  mill,  but  were  peremptorily  refused.  A  like  effort  was  made  at 
Fillmore,  sixty  miles  south  of  Nephi,  and  with  like  results. 

At  Corn  creek,  fourteen  miles  southwesterly  from  Fillmore,  the  emi- 
grants laid  over  a  day  or  two  to  permit  their  work  animals  and  cows 
which  they  were  taking  to  California  to  graze  on  the  then  luxuriant  pas- 
turage of  that  locality.  During  their  sojourn  at  Corn  creek  one  of  the 
emigrants'  animals  died.  A  portion  of  the  carcass  was  eaten  by  some 
of  the  Pahvan  Indians,  who  yet  have  an  encampment  near  the  creek.  It 
is  reported  that  four  of  the  Indians  died,  presumably  from  the  effects  of 
eating  the  diseased  meat. 

That  incident  has  been  worn  threadbare  by  Mormon  and  pro-Mormon 
historians,  who  charge  that  the  emigrants  poisoned  the  carcass  for  the 
express  purpose  of  killing  some  of  the  Indians. 

And  those  same  historians  also  assert  that,  as  an  act  of  revenge,  the 
Indians  followed  the  emigrants  to  the  Meadows  and  there  exterminated 
them.  Those  historians  also  charge  that  the  emigrants  poisoned  the 
water  of  a  spring  with  the  purpose,  as  is  alleged,  of  killing  more  Indians. 
The  second  charge  will  receive  first  attention. 

The  nearest  spring  is  a  half  mile  or  more  north  of  where  the  emi- 
grants were  camped,  and  twice  that  distance  from  the  old  camp  ground 
of  the  Indians.  The  spring  is  in  the  nature  of  a  slough  in  soil  highly 
charged  with  alkali,  of  which  the  water  contains  an  appreciable  quan- 
tity. Not  even  an  Indian  would  drink  the  water  from  that  spring  while 
the  pure  mountain  water  of  Corn  creek  was  within  a  few  rods  of  where 

16 


the  Pahvans  were  camped.  It  would  have  required  many  pounds  of 
poison  to  have  been  effective  on  life,  and  the  emigrants  would  have  poi- 
soned their  cattle,  which  were  grazing  on  the  bottom  land  near  the  slough. 

The  emigrants  were  well  within  that  section  of  Utah  where  the  In- 
dians were  periodically  at  war  with  the  Mormons,  and  which  continued 
until  the  close  of  1866.  The  Pahvan  tribe  was  strong  and  restless.  Less 
than  four  years  previously  Moshoquop,  the  war  chief  of  the  Pahvans,  and 
a  fraction  of  his  band  murdered  Lieutenant  Gunnison  and  his  exploring 
party  of  nearly  a  dozen  men  as  an  act  of  revenge  for  the  killing  of  Mosh- 
oquop 's  father  by  a  hot  headed  emigrant. 

The  Fancher  company  was  not  an  aggregation  of  fools  or  lunatics. 
They  knew  that  they  were  within  the  power  of  an  enemy  that  was  then 
preparing  for  war  with  the  United  States.  Their  failure  to  obtain  food 
supplies,  and  the  sullen  behavior  of  the  Saints  would  have  convinced  men 
of  ordinary  sense  and  caution  that  theirs  was  a  dangerous  situation. 
And  they  knew  that  scores  of  places,  like  the  defile  known  as  Baker's 
pass,  not  twenty  miles  away,  where  a  dozen  Indians  could  waylay  and 
murder  a  hundred  men,  must  be  traversed  before  they  could  reach  the 
open  country  of  the  Nevada  deserts. 

And  at  the  second  trial  of  John  D.  Lee,  in  1876,  Nephi  Johnson,  a 
devout  Mormon  and  Indian  interpreter,  forever  disarmed  the  lying  Mor- 
mon historians  by  declaring  that  no  Pahvan  Indians  were  present  at  the 
massacre.  A  portion  of  Johnson's  evidence,  as  also  that  of  other  wit- 
nesses, is  given  in  the  appendix  at  the  close  of  this  narrative. 

The  fact  is,  western  Indians,  when  pressed  for  food,  eat  the  flesh  of 
diseased  animals;  and  that  the  Pahvans  knew  that  the  emigrants  were 
.blameless  in  the  matter  of  the  death  of  four  of  their  braves  is  abundantly 
proved  by  the  fact  that  they  did  not  molest  the  strangers. 

At  Beaver,  about  forty-eight  miles  from  Corn  creek,  the  emigrants 
made  another  unsuccessful  attempt  to  purchase  supplies. 

On  their  arrival  at  Parowan,  thirty  miles  south  from  Beaver,  the 
emigrants  encamped  outside  the  "fort"  or  earth  wall  surrounding  the 
Mormon  residences  and  gardens.  By  some  means  the  emigrants  succeed- 
ed in  purchasing  a  small  quantity  of  wheat,  but  there  was  no  mill  in  the 
settlement. 

Among  those  who  visited  the  camp  of  the  emigrants  was  Elder  Wil- 
liam Laney,  who  has  before  been  mentioned  as  a  missionary  in  Tennes- 
see. William  A.  Aden  immediately  recognized  Elder  Laney  as  the  man 
whom  he,  with  other  boys,  had  frightened'  by  the  discharge  of  a  small 
cannon  in  the  rear  of  the  courthouse  at  Paris.  Aden  at  once  made  him- 
self known  to  the  elder,  who  recollected  that  Aden's  father  had  given 
him  shelter  when  he  believed  that  his  life  was  in  danger,  and  cordially 
invited  the  young  Tennesseean  to  visit  him  within  the  fort.  Aden  ac- 
cepted the  elder's  hospitality  and  visited  his  home  where  Elder  Laney 
had  two  wives  living  in  the  same  cottage.  Aden  noticed  that  the  elder 
had  a  fine  patch  of  onions  growing  in  his  front  yard  and  asked  to  pur- 
chase some  of  them.  Elder  Laney  called  his  wives  and  instructed  them 
to  pull  the  onions  for  Aden.  The  onions  were  presented  to  the  son  of 
Laney 's  benefactor  in  Tennessee.  For  that  slight  act  of  reciprocal  kind- 
ness the  bishop  of  Parowan  sent  two  young  men  by  the  name  of  Carter 

17 


to  Laney's  house.  The  latter  was  called  out  to  the  sidewalk  where  one 
of  the  young  thugs  beat  him  into  insensibility  with  a  club.  Laney's 
wives  dragged  him  into  the  house  and  protected  him  from  further  assault 
by  the  emissaries  of  the  Mormon  priesthood.  Laney's  injuries  affected 
him  during  the  remainder  of  his  life.  T'-he  incident  serves  to  illustrate 
the  fanaticism  and  hatred  that  inspired  the  Saints  to  commit  the  final 
act  of  extermination  of  the  emigrants. 

From  Parowan  the  road  turns  sharply  to  the  southwest,  and  thus 
continues  eighteen  miles  to  Cedar  City,  where  the  emigrants  made  another 
ineffectual  effort  to  purchase  provisions.  But  Joseph  Walker,  who  wag 
running  the  flour  mills,  ground  the  wheat  which  had  been  obtained  at 
Parowan.  Bishop  Klingensmith  sent  an  eider  to  Walker  and  ordered  him 
not  to  grind  the  wheat.  The  sturdy  and  bluff  old  Englishman  said  to 
the  bishop's  agent:  "Tell  the  bishop  that  I  have  six  grown  sons,  and 
that  we  will  sell  our  lives  at  the  price  of  death  to  others  before  I  will 
obey  his  order. ' '  During  many  weeks  after  the  incident  the  emissaries 
of  the  bishop  hounded  Wialker,  and  one  night  while  at  work  in  the  smut- 
ting room  of  the  mill  he  saved  his  life  by  blowing  out  the  candle,  thus 
thwarting  the  assassins  who  were  lurking  near  the  window  of  the  room. 
And  although  Joseph  Walker  knew  by  whose  orders,  and  by  whom,  the 
Mountain  Meadows  massacre  was  perpetrated,  he  lived  and  died  a  Mor- 
mon. Once  thoroughly  converted  to  the  belief  that  Joseph  Smith  was  a 
prophet  of  God,  a  little  thing  like  the  massacre  at  the  Meadows  doesn't 
even  jar  the  faith  of  the  average  Mormon. 

It  is  very  likely  that  the  emigrants  had  neglected  to  apply  at  Salt 
Lake  City  for  "permits"  to  pass  through  the  territory  of  the  United 
States.  They  were  American  citizens,  pioneers  of  Arkansas  and  Mis- 
souri, and  were  not  accustomed  to  asking  for  permits  to  travel  the  public 
highways.  If  defenders  of  the  Mormon  -'prophets'7  accept  the  theory 
that  Brigham  Young's  "proclamation"  declaring  martial  law  was  not  in 
effect  at  the  time  the  emigrants  were  en  route  to  the  Meadows,  and  that 
"permits"  were  not  necessary,  they  abandon  the  only  possible  excuse,  or 
apology,  for  the  massacre — that  under  all  the  circumstances  it  was  a  mil- 
itary necessity,  and  must,  forsooth,  concede  that  it  was  a  religious  murder, 
and  that  "by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 

Cedar  City  was  the  last  town  on  their  route  to  California,  and  the 
last  place  where  Brigham  Young's  order  regarding  permits  could,  without 
a  massacre,  be  enforced.  And  "Brother"  Isaac  C.  Haight  was  the  last 
man  on  the  route  who  was  "authorized"  by  the  Mormon  "prophet"  to 
issue  permits.  And  there  is  no  doubt  that  Haight  insisted  that  the  orders 
of  his  religious  master  in  Salt  Lake  City  be  fulfilled  to  the  letter,  and  that 
the  emigrants  resented  the  insult. 

Whether  true  or  false,  unfortunately  the  emigrants  cannot  be  called 
in  rebuttal,  the  Mormons  of  Cedar  City  have  been  insistent  in  their 
charges  that  the  emigrants'  conduct  was  rude,  defiant  and  boisterous.  It 
is  alleged  that  they  fired  their  pistols  in  the  air,  "swore  like  pirates,"  and 
defied  the  town  authorities  to  arrest  them.  It  is  also  asserted  that  some 
of  the  emigrants  from  Missouri  boasted  of  having  aided  in  driving  the 
Mormons  from  that  state,  and  with  having  nelped  kill  "old  Joe  Smith" 
at  Carthage  jail  in  Illinois.  It  is  also  affirmed  that  the  emigrants  swore 

18 


ROUTE 

EMIGRANT  CAMP  ANC 
WAG-ON-FORT 

DIRECTION  of  DEATH 
s-s  WAGONS  DRIVEN  BY  M'MURDY 
WRIGHT.  -t-PosmoNof  JOHNB.LEE 
M   IRON  COUNTY  MILITIA.!-* 

EMIGRANTS.  W- WOMEN 
CHILDREN. 


that  they  would  take  provisions  by  force  from  the  small  hamlets  and 
ranches  through  which  they  expected  to  pass  on  their  way  down  the 
Santa  Clara  river. 

Fancher's  company  turned  westerly,  following  the  old  emigrant  trail 
to  California,  and  camped  at  the  southwest  corner  of  the  Cedar  co-opera- 
tive field.  According  to  Mormon  statements,  it  was  there  that  the  emi- 
grants committed  their  last  depredation,  although  they  passed  through 
Pinto,  six  miles  northeasterly  from  the  Meadows.  According  to  rumor, 
they  used  some  fencing  for  fuel,  thus  opening  the  Cedar  field  to  the  tres- 
pass of  range  cattle  and  horses. 

The  emigrants  were  then  about  thirty  miles  northeasterly  from  the 
Meadows.  We  will  precede  them  and  make  the  reader  acquainted  with 
the  topography  of  the  locality. 

THE  MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS. 

The  Mountain  Meadows  are  situated  about  twenty-five  miles  south- 
easterly from  Modena,  a  distributing  station  on  the  Salt  Lake,  Los  An- 
geles &  San  Pedro  railroad,  in  the  southwesterly  part  of  Iron  county. 

A  few  miles  north  of  the  Washington  county  line  the  land  rises  quite 
rapidly  to  the  southwesterly  "rim  of  the  Great  Salt  lake  basin."  Be- 
ginning at  the  "rim,"  and  descending  gently  toward  the  southwest  some 
two  miles,  is  a  narrow  valley  or  depression  similar  to  scores  of  others 
which  occur  in  the  higher  altitudes  of  the  Kocky  mountains.  A  low,  un- 
dulating bench,  occupied  by  sparsely  growing  scrub  cedars  and  pinyon 
pines,  forms  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  depression,  while  low  hills  and 
ridges  roll  away  toward  the  west  a  mile  or  so,  where  they  vanish  in  the 
east  base  of  the  Beaver  Dam  range  of  mountains. 

The  locality  is  about  6000  feet  above  sea  level,  and  fifty  years  ago  the 
narrow  strip  of  bottom  land  was  covered  with  luxuriant  high  altitude 
grass.  With  the  exception  of  clumps  of  scrub  oak  and  scattering  cedars 
on  the  hillsides,  there  is  nothing  to  relieve  the  monotony  of  the  bare  hills 
and  ridges.  A  few  springs  weakly  emerge  from  the  hillsides  and  bottom 
land  and  furnish  all  the  water  within  a  distance  of  several  miles.  Well 
down  toward  the  lower  end  of  the  depression  a  small  spring  emerged  from 
the  sward  within  about  thirty  yards  to  the  southeast  of  where  the  emi- 
grants went  into  camp  for  the  last  time.  To  the  west,  and  within  twenty 
rods  of  the  spring,  the  south  end  of  a  low  ridge  rises  from  the  flat  and 
reaches  out  a  quarter  mile  or  so  toward  the  north.  The  crest  of  the 
ridge  is  strewn  with  blocks  of  basalt,  and  forms  a  natural  rampart.  The 
base  of  the  eastern  hillside  is  not  more  than  thirty  rods  from  the  spring, 
and  is  occupied  with  clumps  of  oak  brush. 

About  thirty  rods  northeast  of  the  old  camp  grounds  is  a  compara- 
tively high  hill  of  small  dimensions,  from  the  base  of  which  a  low  swell, 
or  rise  of  ground,  extends  southerly  to  the  bench.  To  the  south  and  east 
of  the  swell,  a  few  rods  from  its  summit,  is  a  depression  covered  with  a 
dense  growth  of  mountain  sage.  Across  the  depression,  some  thirty  rods 
to  the  south,  the  base  of  the  bench  is  bounded  by  a  gully  some  twelve  feet 
deep — deeper  now  than  at  the  time  of  the  massacre.  The  south  side  of 
the  gully  is  conspicuously  marked  by  two  large  clumps  of  scrub  oak,  and 
beyond  the  hillside  is  occupied  with  sage,  scrub  oak  and  scattered  cedars. 

21 


The  east  clump  of  oak  was  the  scene  of  the  most  terrible  incident  of  all 
that  heartless  butchery. 

Although  the  nights  were  somewhat  chilly  in  the  high  altitude  of  the 
meadows,  the  days  were  quite  warm,  and  the  emigrants  knew  that  three 
or  four  days'  travel  would  take  them  down  into  an  altitude  of  about  1500 
feet,  and  out  on  the  blistering  sand  and  gravel  strewn  plains  and  mesas 
of  southern  Nevada,  where,  in  some  localities,  the  watering  places  are 
fifty  miles  apart,  and  scant  forage  for  animals.  Doubtless  those  consid- 
erations again  prompted  them  to  rest  their  cattle  for  the  hard  journey 
that  awaited  them.  And  had  conditions  been  otherwise  they  were  really 
conserving  time  and  comfort  in  the  delay. 

THE  CONSPIRACY. 

About  September  7,  or  the  Sabbath  following  the  departure  of  the 
emigrants  from  Cedar,  a  meeting  of  the  priesthood  was  held  in  the  com- 
bined school  and  meeting  house  on  the  public  square. 

There  had  .been  hatched  in  the  cruel,  priest-ridden  brain  of  Isaac  C. 
Haight  a  plot  to  exterminate  the  emigrants.  His  scheme  was  to  collect 
the  Indians  within  a  radius  of  sixty  miles  and  loose  them  upon  the 
strangers,  and  he  would  put  the  question  to  the  brethren  at  the  meeting. 
He  was  already  assured  of  the  enthusiastic  support  of  Bishop  Klingen- 
smith. 

The  subject  of  the  extermination  of  the  emigrants  was  duly  presented 
to  the  priesthood  (nearly  every  man  in  the  Mormon  church  holds  the 
priesthood),  and  was  discussed  at  considerable  length.  A  few  of  the 
elders  opposed  it,  while  others  warmly  approved  the  measure  that  was  so 
in  harmony  with  the  teachings  of  the  "prophets"  and  with  the  "spirit 
of  the  reformation."  The  arguments  waxed  warm  and  caused  considera- 
ble commotion. 

While  the  excitement  was  at  its  height  a  commanding  figure  entered 
the  building.  The  man  was  Laban  Morrill,  who  presided  over  the  spir- 
itual and  temporal  welfare  of  the  Saints  at  Johnson's  Fort,  a  small  set- 
tlement about  six  miles  northerly  from  Cedar.  Laban  Morrill  would  have 
attracted  attention  anywhere  among  his  f ellowmen.  His  fine  head,  strong, 
yet  kindly  features  and  dignified  bearing  marked  him  as  an  altogether 
superior  man.  After  seating  himself  Mr.  Morrill  turned  to  an  elder  and 
asked  him  the  cause  of  the  excitement. 

After  listening  a  few  minutes  to  the  speeches  for  and  against  the 
measure,  Laban  Morrill  arose  and  dispassionately  pointed  out  the  unwis- 
dom and  inhumanity  of  the  proposed  deed.  President  Haight  and  Bishop 
Klingensmith  contended  for  the  perpetration  of  the  infamous  crime.  They 
urged  that  the  Lord's  prophet  had  said:  "If  any  miserable  curses  come 
here,  cut  their  throats."  It  was  not  advice,  it  was  a  command.  And  the 
emigrants  surely  came  within  the  meaning  of  the  term  "miserable 
curses."  Had  they  not  boasted  of  having  aided  in  driving  the  "Lord's 
chosen  people"  from  Missouri?  And  had  they  not  also  boasted  of  helping 
to  murder  the  Lord's  greatest  prophet,  Joseph  Smith?  And  had  they  not 
also  threatened  to  raise  an  army  in  California  and  aid  in  exterminating 
the  Mormons? 

Such  were  the  arguments  used  by  Haight,  Klingensmith  and  others  to 

22 


inflame  the  passions  of  the  elders,  and  to  "keep  alive  the  spirit  of  the 
reformation,"  as  President  Young  had  advised.  But  the  masterful  pres- 
ence of  Laban  Morrill,  for  the  moment,  apparently  stood  between  the 
emigrants  at  the  Meadows  and  destruction.  The  discussion  was  long  and 
stormy,  but  Morrill  finally  forced  an  apparent  compromise.  He  de- 
scribed the  ineffaceable  stain  that  such  an  infanmy  would  bring  upon  the 
church,  and  upon  the  descendants  of  those  who  participated  in  the  crime. 
As  a  last,  and  more  forcible,  argument  he  told  the  elders  that  President 
Young  had  not  been  consulted  in  the  matter.  It  was  then  agreed  that 
action  be  deferred  until  reply  could  be  received  from  a  message  that 
would  be  sent  the  next  day  to  President  Young.  With  that  understanding 
the  elders  dispersed,  and  Laban  Morrill  returned  home  "feeling,"  as  he 
subsequently  expressed  it,  "that  all  was  well." 

It  was  nearly  dark  of  an  evening  some  three  or  four  days  prior  to 
the  priesthood  meeting  just  described,  when  President  Isaac  C.  Haight 
walked  out  on  the  public  square  at  Cedar  City.  Evidently  he  was  expect- 
ing someone.  He  had  but  a  few  minutes  to  wait. 

A  man  of  medium  height,  heavy  build  and  square,  smooth  face  rode 
up  and  dismounted.  After  the  usual  greetings,  and  a  compliment  to  the 
newcomer  for  his  promptness  in  responding  to  the  summons,  Haight  told 
Lee  that  he  had  an  important  matter  to  discuss  with  him,  and  suggested 
that  they  take  some  blankets  and  spend  the  night  in  the  unused  iron 
works  building  (subsequently  used  for  a  distillery),  where  they  would 
not  be  disturbed. 

During  the  night  the  plot  for  murdering  the  emigrants  was  fully  dis- 
cussed, and  the  details,  so  far  as  possible,  were  arranged.  Nephi  Johnson, 
a  youth  of  nineteen  years,  and  an  excellent  Indian  interpreter,  was 
selected  to  "stir  up"  the  redskins  in  the  vicinity  and  send  them  down  to 
the  Meadows.  Johnson  was  to  represent  to  the  Indians  that  the  "Meri- 
cats" — Gentiles — were  at  war  with  the  Mormons  and  Indians,  and  that 
the  emigrants  were  going  to  California  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  re- 
turning with  an  army  to  exterminate  the  Mormons  and  Indians.  Carl 
Shirts,  Lee's  son-in-law,  was  assigned  to  a  like  mission  among  the  In- 
dians near  St.  George,  and  Oscar  Hamblin  was  to  lead  the  Santa  Clara 
Indians  to  the  Meadows. 

To  those  not  acquainted  with  the  inner  workings  of  the  hierarchal 
despotism  called  the  Mormon  church,  it  may  appear  incredible  that  Nephi 
Johnson  and  the  others  would  consent  to  become  tools  in  a  scheme  so 
diabolical,  so  cruel  and  inexpressibly  treacherous,  but  the  facts  to  be 
related  will  remove  the  last  doubt.  Subsquently,  Nephi  Johnson  testified 
that  he  was  afraid  of  personal  violence  if  ne  refused,  and  that  he  had 
known  of  instances  where  men  had  been  "injured"  for  refusal  to  do  as 
they  were  told.  By  an  ingenious  ruse,  at  the  last  moment,  Johnson 
avoided  personal  participation  in  the  wholesale  murder. 

The  afternoon  following  the  priesthood  meeting  James  H.  Haslam, 
now  residing  in  Wellsville,  Cache  county,  Utah,  started  on  his  memorable 
ride  to  Salt  Lake  City,  bearing  the  message  of  inquiry  as  to  the  disposal 
•  of  the  emigrants.  The  story  of  that  ride,  of  the  relays  of  horses,  of  the 
delay  because  of  the  indifference  of  the  bishop  of  Fillmore,  and  of  other 
incidents  would  be  interesting,  but  regard  for  brevity  compels  their 
omission. 

22 


THE  ATTACK. 

In  the  days  of  those  long  and  strenuous  journeys  across  the  western 
portion  of  the  continent  the  emigrants  were  wont  to  drive  their  wagons 
into  a  circle  with  the  tongues  on  the  inside  for  convenience  in  getting 
into  and  out  of  the  wagons.  The  arrangement  served  admirably  for  a 
fort  in  case  of  attack,  and  formed  a  corral  into  which  the  work  animals 
were  driven  and  held  while  being  yoked  or  harnessed. 

That  the  emigrants  had  no  suspicion  of  danger  is  proved  by  the  hap- 
hazard, position  of  their  wagons  when  the  first  attack  was  made,  and  by 
the  other  fact  that  no  guards  were  with  their  animals.  The  evidences  of 
the  feeling  of  security  aid  in  disproving  the  charge  that  they  were 
guilty  of  unprovoked  acts  of  aggression  and  violence  in  Cedar  City. 

The  morning  of  September  13  found  the  men,  as  usual,  early  astir. 
On  the  east  side  of  the  wagons  several  camp  fires  were  sending  up  their 
cheery  light,  thus  relieving  the  darkness  that  precedes  the  early  dawn. 
The  forms  of  men  were  distinctly  outlined  against  the  bright  light  from 
burning  cedar  and  sagebrush.  There  was  no  premonition  of  danger.  Jets 
of  flame,  followed  by  the  cracking  of  rifles  and  the  fierce  warwhoops 
from  the  throats  of  more  than  a  hundred  Indians  startled  the  men  from 
their  fancied  security.  Seven  men  fell  dead  or  mortally  wounded.  The 
triumphant  yells  of  the  Indians  were  mingled  with  the  screams  of  women 
and  the  cries  of  children  suddenly  awakened  to  the  peril  that  menaced 
them.  In  the  excitement,  confusion  and  terror  the  men  secured  their 
arms  and,  guided  by  the  pandemonium  on  the  hillside,  returned  the  fire 
with  such  precision  that  three  Indians  were  killed  and  several  wounded. 

The  redskins  had  been  promised  an  easy  victory  over  the  white  men, 
and  that  none  of  them  would  .be  injured  by  the  "enemies  of  the  Lord." 
Very  naturally,  the  reds  were  surprised  as  well  as  frightened  at  the  re- 
sult, and  hastily  withdrew,  carrying  with  them  their  dead  and  injured 
over  the  brow  of  the  hill. 

The  disgusted  braves  held  an  impromptu  powwow,  and  immediately 
dispatched  a  messenger  over  the  east  range  to  John  D.  Lee,  at  Harmony, 
and  his  presence  demanded  at  the  Meadows.  (See  appendix.)  On  Lee's 
arrival  the  dead  and  wounded  Indians  were  pointed  out  to  him  as  the 
disastrous  results  of  the  attack.  According  to  Lee's  statement,  the  In- 
dians insisted  that  he  at  once  lead  them  to  victory,  or,  failing,  they  would 
wreak  vengeance  on  the  Mormons  because  of  their  duplicity  in  the  matter 
of  promised  divine  protection. 

Lee  avers  that  he  believed  the  emigrants  had  been  "sufficiently  pun- 
ished," and  that,  in  order  to  gain  time  and  to  quiet  the  frenzy  of  the 
Indians,  who  were  from  Cedar  and  Parowan,  he  told  them  that  he  would 
go  down  to  the  Santa  Clara  and  hurry  up  the  Indians  who  were  pre- 
sumed to  be  en  route  to  the  Meadows. 

24 


After  some  parleying  Lee  was  permitted  to  depart.  When  some 
sixteen  miles  distant  he  met  about  one  hundred  Indians  from  St.  George 
and  the  Santa  Clara  under  the  direction  of  Carl  Shirts  and  Oscar  Ham- 
blin.  With  the  Indians  were  some  fifteen  white  men  from  St.  George  and 
the  outlying  hamlets.  As  it  was  then  evening  the  white  men  went  into 
camp  at  the  upper  crossing  of  the  river,  while  the  reds  went  on  to  the 
Meadows. 

From  Lee 's  story  of  the  massacre,  the  truth  of  which  has  not  been 
challenged  by  any  defender  of  the  Mormon  faith,  we  are  induced  to  be- 
lieve that  the  first  intimation  that  he  had  that  white  men  were  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  butchery  was  when  he  met  those  fifteen  men,  whom  he 
names,  at  the  upper  crossing  of  the  Santa  Clara.  The  camp  fire  talk  of 
those  men  removed  the  last  doubt  of  the  intention  of  the  priesthood  of 
the  Parowan  stake  of  Zion  to  blood  atone  the  emigrants.  Lee's  state- 
ment that  he  spent  the  night  in  tears  and  in  supplications  to  God  for 
some  manifestation  or  sign  that  the  contemplated  sacrifice  was  approvet 
of  heaven  is  at  once  sincere  and  pathetic. 

EMIGRANTS'  HEEOIC  DEFENSE. 

Immediately  after  the  first  attack  the  emigrants  drew  their  wagons 
into  a  circle  and  chained  the  wheels  together.  A  rifle  pit,  large  enough 
to  protect  the  women,  children  and  wounded,  was  dug  in  the  center  of 
the  corral.  A  few  feet  northeast  of  the  rifle  pit  a  circular  excavation 
about  six  feet  in  diameter,  and  at  present  about  two  feet  deep,  is  a  pa- 
thetic witness  that  the  emigrants  made  an  abortive  effort  to  obtain  water 
by  digging,  and  which  remains  as  evidence  of  their  desperate  plight. 

During  the  forenoon  of  the  14th  Lee  and  the  other  white  men  rode 
from  the  Santa  Clara  to  the  Meadows.  Lee  immediately  sent  a  dispatch 
to  Haight,  which  closed  as  follows:  "For  my  sake,  for  the  people's 
sake,  for  God's  sake,  send  me  help  to  protect  and  save  these  emigrants." 

From  a  careful  analysis  of  the  evidence  and  statements  of  those 
present  at  the  tragedy,  and  from  an  inspection  of  the  topography  of  the 
Meadows,  it  is  certain  that  the  Indians  were  camped  at  a  spring  about  a 
half  mile  below  the  camp  of  the  emigrants,  and  that  the  white  men 
camped  on  the  small  rivulet  to  the  northeast  of  "Massacre  hill,"  or  in 
the  depression  which  has  been  described  as  being  over  the  "low  rise  o^ 
ground,"  some  fifty  to  sixty  rods  northeasterly  from  the  camp  of  the 
emigrants. 

Some  time  during  the  afternoon  Lee  crossed  diagonally  over  the 
meadow  to  the  northwest,  for  the  purpose,  as  he  claims,  "to  take  a  look 
at  the  situation."  The  emigrants  recognized  him  as  a  white  man,  and 
immediately  displayed  a  white  flag.  Charley  Fancher,  son  of  the  captain, 
and  another  boy  were  sent  out  to  interview  Lee.  But,  as  he  asserts,  he 
hid  from  the  boys,  because  he  had  not  received  word  from  Haight  regard- 
ing the  final  disposal  of  the  emigrants.  After  a  close  search  for  Lee  the 
boys  returned  to  camp.  They  were  not  fired  upon,  which  is  the  only 
gleam  of  light  in  the  darkness  of  the  infamous  details. 

Toward  evening  the  Indians  made  a  detour  from  their  camp  to  the 
west,  and  among  the  ridges  and  foothills  of  the  Beaver  Dam  range  ap- 

26 


preached  the  basalt  ridge  to  the  west  and  northwest  of  the  improvised 
fort  of  the  emigrants,  and  began  the  second  attack  on  the  beleaguered 
strangers.  Lee  heard  the  screams  o'f  the  women  and  children,  and  ac- 
companied by  Oscar  Hamblin  and  another  man  ran  across  the  meadow  for 
the  purpose  of  quieting  the  redskins.  Before  reaching  the  shelter  of  the 
ridge,  as  Lee  asserts,  he  received  two  bullets  through  his  clothing  and  one 
through  his  hat.  The  incident  has  not  been  disputed  by  those  who  ap- 
pear to  think  it  their  duty,  in  the  interest  of  their  church,  to  blacken  the 
memory  of  John  D.  Lee.  Aided  by  Oscar  Hamblin  Lee  quieted  the  In- 
dians by  pleading  with  them  to  desist  until  word  could  be  received  from 
the  big  Mormon  chief  at  Cedar  City. 

ASSEMBLING  OF  WHITE   ASSASSINS. 

Whether  or  not  Lee's  message  was  received  by  Haight  prior  to  dis- 
patching a  number  of  the  elders  to  the  Meadows  is  uncertain  as  well  as 
immaterial.  Certain  it  is  that  during  the  14th  William  C.  Stewart,  a 
high  priest  and  member  of  the  Cedar  City  council;  Bishop  Klingensmith, 
Samuel  McMurdy  and  about  thirty-five  other  white  men,  under  command 
of  Major  John  M.  Higbee,  arrived  at  Leachy  spring,  in  a  canyon  descend- 
ing to  the  east  in  the  range  that  divides  Cedar  City  from  Pinto,  and 
about  seventeen  miles  from  the  Meadows,  where  they  camped  for  the 
night. 

Some  time  during  the  night  of  the  13th  William  A.  Aden  and  two 
other  young  men  left  the  camp  of  the  emigrants,  and  after  eluding  the 
white  men  and  Indians  started  toward  Cedar  for  the  purpose,  if  possible, 
of  obtaining  assistance.  Arriving  at  Leachy  spring  they  were  challenged 
by  Stewart,  to  whom  Aden  stated  the  nature  of  their  mission.  Stewart 
&nd  another  night  guard  replied  with  their  guns,  and  the  young  artist 
from  Tennessee  was  the  first  victim  of  those  blood  atoning  priests,  who 
shot  him  in  the  back.  One  of  Aden's  companions  was  wounded,  but,  with 
the  other  emigrant,  escaped  and  succeeded  in  reaching  their  camp. 

Until  the  return  of  Aden's  companions  no  doubt  the  emigrants  hoped 
that  none  other  than  Indians  were  concerned  in  the  assault  upon  them. 
The  cowardly  murder  of  Aden  was  sufficient  to  convince  them  tiat  the 
redskins  were  merely  the  allies  and  tools  of  the  white  men,  and  that 
they  were  face  to  face  with  annihilation.  Even  if  any  of  them  could 
escape  in  the  darkness  they  would  surely  perish  on  the  desert.  Within 
their  inclosure  they  had  buried  seven  of  the  brave  defenders  of  the  women 
and  children,  and  others  were  wounded — even  then  dying.  Any  attempt 
to  describe  the  efforts  of  those  heroic  men  to  comfort  their  wives  and  to- 
calm  the  terror  of  their  children  would  be  as  fruitless  as  unprofitable. 
Out  on  the  desert,  with  the  stars  looking  down  on  the  final  sepulchre  of 
the  emigrants,  we  are  compelled  to  leave  them  to  their  reflections.  Not 
until  those  men,  women  and  children  meet  their  destroyers  and  the  Mor- 
mon "  prophets  "  before  the  bar  of  eternal  justice  will  the  whole  truth  of 
the  tragedy  be  known.  And  not  until  then  will  the  story  of  what  trans- 
pired in  the  camp  of  the  emigrants  be  told. 

Higbee  and  his  companions  arrived  at  the  Meadows  the  morning  after 
the  murder  of  Aden.  Haight 's  orders  were  handed  to  Lee.  The  nature- 

28 


of  those  instructions  need  not  be  stated.  Lee  claims  that  his  entire  being 
revolted,  but  he  knew  the  consequences  of  refusal. 

Why  the  emigrants  did  not  inclose  the  spring  at  the  time  of  forming 
their  corral  is  inexplicable  except  on  the  theory  of  the  excitement  that 
accompanied  the  attack.  Prior  to  the  15th  they  secured  water  during 
the  night  time.  It  appears,  however,  that  on  the  15th  the  supply  was 
exhausted.  Two  men  went  out  to  the  spring,  and  while  a  rain  of  lead 
spattered  around  them,  filled  their  pails  and  reached  the  fort  in  safety. 
On  another  occasion  two  men  went  out  after  wood  and,  while  the  bullets 
whistled  by  and  tore  up  the  ground  around  them,  coolly  chopped  the 
wood  and  returned  to  the  inclosure.  The  foregoing  is  the  tribute  paid 
to  the  courage  of  those  men  by  John  D.  Lee.  That  those  shots  were  fired 
from  the  top  of  Massacre  hill,  within  fifteen  rods  of  the  Mormon  camp, 
is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the  spring  was  sheltered  from  attack  from 
miscreants  on  the  ridge  to  the  northwest  by  the  intervening  wagons,  and 
the  other  fact  that  all  other  points  were  unprotected  from  the  return  fire 
of  the  emigrants. 

The  evening  of  the  15th  again  witnessed  the  assembling  of  the  In- 
dians behind  the  basalt  ridge.  Again  they  poured  volley  after  volley 
into  the  improvised  fort,  and  were  answered  with  energy  and  precision. 
One  of  the  Santa  Clara  Indians  was  killed  and  three  others  were  wounded. 
Disgusted  with  the  second  failure  of  divine  protection,  some  of  the  reds 
rounded  up  a  bunch  of  the  emigrants'  cattle  and  returned  to  their  camp 
on  the  Santa  Clara  river. 

The  Mormons  were  astir  early  on  the  morning  of  the  16th.  The 
ruddy  glow  of  a  dozen  camp  fires  lighted  up  the  small  depression  and 
cast  weird  shadows  as  the  men  walked  to  and  fro  or  squatted  around  the 
fires  while  preparing  the  morning  meal. 

WJrile  yet  dark  the  men  were  summoned  to  prayers.  Under  the  blue- 
vault  of  heaven,  from  which  the  angels  must  have  looked  down  with 
infinite  sorrow  on  the  hellish  scene,  those  wretched  victims  of  unquestion- 
ing obedience,  of  superstition  and  fanaticism,  knelt  in  the  form  of  a 
"prayer  circle."  With  heads  bowed  in  abject  servility  to  an  alien  god, 
and  each  right  arm  raised  in  the  form  of  a  square,  those  unhappy  dupes 
listened  while  one  of  the  "servants  of  the  Lord'7  asked  the  blessing  of 
their  god  upon  the  deeds  they  were  about  to  enact,  and  for  divine  pro- 
tection while  they  were  "avenging  the  blood  of  the  prophets  who  died 
in  Carthage  jail, ' ;  and  the  martyrs  who  perished  in  Missouri  and  Illinois. 
The  invocation  ended,  the  brethren  convened  in  "council." 

It  has  ever  .been  the  boast  of  the  Mormon  priesthood  that  all  questions 
of  importance  to  the  church  are  submitted  to  the  Saints  and  are  decided 
by  "common  consent,"  and  which,  being  interpreted,  means  consenting  to 
the  will  of  the  Mormon  god's  vicegerents,  or,  failing,  they  "lie  in  the 
presence  of  God."  And  because  of  that  rule  the  "council  meeting," 
convened  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of  debating  the  measures  embraced 
in  Haight's  program  for  the  disposal  of  the  emigrants  was  a  burlesque. 
The  fate  of  the  emigrants  had  been  predetermined  by  Isaac  C.  Haight, 
who  was  the  direct  agent  of  the  "holy"  vicegerents  who  resided  at  Salt 
The  "council"  was  merely  a  ratification  meeting.  Some  there 

29 


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were  who  had  the  courage  to   oppose  the  infamous  measures,  but  their 
voices  were  feeble  in  the  presence  of  "the  leading  priesthood." 

Jacob  Hamblin,  brother  of  Oscar  Hamblin,  and  a  trusted  missionary 
to  the  Indians,  owned  a  ranch  some  two  miles  northeasterly  from  the 
Meadows,  and  near  the  junction  of  the  roads  from  Modena  and  Cedar  City 
to  the  Meadows.  At  the  time  of  the  massacre  Hamblin  was  not  at 
home.  But  Samuel  Knight,  from  the  Santa  Clara,  was  temporarily  ranch- 
ing near  the  Hamblin  place.  During  the  forenoon  of  the  16th  a  messenger 
arrived  at  Hamblin 's  and  requested  Knight  to  go  with  his  team  over  to 
the  Meadows.  Knight  must  have  known  of  the  attack  on  the  emigrants, 
and  very  likely  suspected  the  reason  for  the  request.  He  pleaded  the  ill- 
ness of  his  wife.  The  request  was  then  made  for  the  use  of  his  team. 
Knight  explained  that  his  horses  were  only  partly  broken,  and  that  if  the 
demand  were  imperative  he  would  go  with  them.  Such,  in  brief,  was 
Knight 's  testimony  at  the  second  trial  of  Lee. 


THE  MASSACRE. 

Unless  it  was  the  natural  dread  that  nearly  all  men  feel  when  con- 
science rebels  at  the  vision  of  treachery  and  carnage,  there  is  no  explana- 
tion of  the  postponement  of  the  final  arrangements  for  the  massacre  until 
2  p.  m.  At  about  that  hour  William  Bateman,  carrying  a  white  flag,  and 
accompanied  by  Lee,  appeared  on  the  low  rise  of  ground  which  separated 
the  camp  of  the  Mormons  from  that  of  the  emigrants.  Bateman  went  on 
to  within  a  short  distance  of  the  corral,  where  he  paused  and  awaited 
some  sign  of  recognition.  A  man  named  Hamilton  went  out  to  Bateman, 
and  after  a  short  parley  the  former  returned  to  the  corral.  Within  a  few 
minutes  Hamilton  again  went  out  and  told  Bateman  that  the  emigrants 
would  put  themselves  under  the  protection  of  the  flag  of  truce.  Bateman 
waved  his  flag,  and  the  curtain  was  lifted  on  one  of  the  most  inexcusable 
and  atrociouus  crimes  of  all  the  centuries. 

Lee  hastened  down  to  the  corral,  followed  by  two  teams  driven  by 
McMurdy  and  Knight.  The  emigrants  drew  aside  one  of  their  wagons, 
thus  opening  the  corral.  McMurdy,  followed  by  Knight,  drove  into  the 
inclosure.  The  emigrants  were  burying  two  men  who  had  just  died  of 
their  wounds.  Conditions  within  the  camp  can  best  be  described  in  the 
words  of  John  D.  Lee. 

"As  I  entered  the  fortifications,  men,  women  and  children  gathered 
around  me  in  wild  consternation.  Some  felt  that  the  time  of  their  happy 
deliverance  had  come,  while  others,  although  in  deep  distress,  and  all  in 
tears,  looked  upon  me  with  doubt,  distrust  and  terror."  Describing  his 
sensations,  Lee  continues:  "My  position  was  painful,  trying  and  awful; 
my  brain  seemed  to  be  on  fire;  my  nerves  were  for  a  moment  unstrung; 
humanity  was  overpowered,  as  I  thought  of  the  cruel,  unmanly  part  I 
was  acting.  ...  I  knew  that  I  was  acting  a  cruel  part  and  doing  a 
damnable  deed.  Yet  my  faith  in  the  godliness  of  my  leaders  was  such 
that  it  forced  me  to  think  that  I  was  not  sufficiently  spiritual  to  act  the 
important  part  I  was  commanded  to  perform.  ...  I  delivered  my 
message,  and  told  the  people  that  they  must  put  their  arms  in  the  wagon, 
so  as  not  to  arouse  the  animosity  of  the  Indians.  I  ordered  the  children 
and  wounded,  some  clothing  and  arms,  to  be  put  into  the  wagons."  In 
speaking  of  the  defensive  condition  of  the  camp,  Lee  says:  "If  the 
emigrants  had  had  a  good  supply  of  ammunition  they  never  would  have 
surrendered,  and  I  do  not  think  we  could  have  captured  them  without 
great  loss,  for  they  were  brave  men  and  very  resolute  and  determined." 

Continuing,  Lee  says: 

"Just  as  the  wagons  were  loaded  (Adjutant)  Dan  McFarland  (of  St. 
George)  came  riding  into  the  corral  and  said  that  Major  Higbee  had 


ordered  great  haste  to  be  made,  for  he  was  afraid  the  Indians  would  re- 
turn and  renew  tiie  attack  before  he  could  get  the  emigrants  to  a  place  of 
safety. ' ' 

In  the  meantime  the  militia,  nearly  fifty  in  number,  moved  over  the 
low  ridge  and  proceeded  close  down  to  the  emigrant  camp  and,  in  single 
file  and  about  six  feet  apart,  took  positions  on  the  southeast  side  of  the 
road. 

The  Indians,  some  two  hundred  strong,  secreted  themselves  in  the 
rank  sage  and  behind  cedar  trees  in  the  near  vicinity  of  the  Mormon 
camp. 

Nephi  Johnson's  horse  had  learned  the  trick  of  untying  his  halter 
rope  when  it  was  carelessly  fastened.  Johnson,  as  I  have  been  informed 
by  his  intimate  friends,  carelessly  tied  his  horse  to  a  cedar  tree,  then 


Looking  southerly  from  Massacre  hill — Fig.  I,  place  from  where  Nephi  Johnson 
looked  down  on  the  massacre;  Fig.  2,  temporary  refuge  of  Dunlap  girls;  Fig.  3,  where 
women  and  children  were  murdered. 

stepped  back  and  watched  the  intelligent  brute  untie  the  knot  and  scam- 
per up  the  hillside  to  the  south.  Johnson  obtained  permission  from  Major 
Higbee  to  go  after  his  horse,  and  took  a  position  on  the  point  of  the  bench 
from  which  he  had  an  unobstructed  view  of  the  entire  field. 

Two  wounded  men  and  a  number  of  children,  "too  young  to  tell 
tales,"  were  placed  in  Knight's  wagon  which  emerged  from  the  corral 
preceded  by  Lee  and  McMurdy's  wagon.  Following  Knight's  wagon 
were  the  women  and  children  old  enough  to  "tell  tales."  When  the 
women  reached  a  point  about  one  hundred  yards  northeasterly  from  the 
corral,  the  male  emigrants,  in  single  file,  and  about  six  feet  apart,  were 

34 


permitted  to  begin  the  line  of  march.  When  they  were  opposite  the 
militia  the  latter  stepped  forward  and,  keeping  a  few  feet  to  the  right 
of  the  emigrants,  joined  in  the  death  march — following  the  women  and 
children. 

The  horses  driven  by  Samuel  McMurdy  were  unusually  fast  walkers, 
and  Lee,  who  had  charge  of  the  first  division  of  the  emigrants — the  women 
and  children,  was  forced  to  repeatedly  admonish  McMurdy  not  to  travel 
so  rapidly.  The  respective  localities  had  been  carefully  selected  for  the 
slaughter  of  the  men  and  women,  and  it  would  not  do  to  have  McMurdy 
pass  the  point  where  the  Indians  were  secreted  until  the  word  was  given 
to  begin  the  carnage.  The  arrangements  were  made  and  carried  out  with 
all  the  precision  of  a  legalized  execution. 

There  can  be  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  the  men  knew  the  meaning 


Looking  northwesterly — Fig.  1,  clump  of  oak  bushes  where  Rachel  and 
Ruth  Dunlap  found  temporary  refuge;  Fig.  2,  Massacre  hill;  Fig-  3,  where 
women  and  children  were  murdered. 

of  the  peculiar  formation  of  the  procession.  If  there  were  danger  of  an 
attack  by  the  Indians  why  was  it,  they  thought,  that  they  were  not  per- 
mitted to  retain  their  firearms  and  aid  in  the  protection  of  their  wives 
and  children?  But,  through  unparalleled  treachery,  they  were  then  pow- 
erless, and  there  was  probably  the  hope  that  those  so  dear  to  them  might 
be  spared.  That  no  word  of  protest  was  spoken  is  the  strongest  com- 
mendation of  their  heroism  and  evidence  of  their  resignation. 

Major  Higbee  was  mounted  and  occupied  a  position  on  the  summit 
of  the  low  elevation  over  which  the  wagons  and  women  and  children  must 
pass.  The  advance  section  of  the  procession  passed  over  the  elevation 

35 


and  were  partially,  if  not  entirely,  hidden  from  those  in  the  rear,  when 
Higbee  gave  the  command:  "Do  your  duty!  " 

Terrified  by  the  explosion  of  firearms  and  yells  of  the  Indians, 
Knight's  horses  reared  and  plunged.  He  leaped  from  the  wagon,  caught 
his  horses  by  the  bits,  and  turned  his  face  from  the  awful  scene. 

One  of  the  wounded  men  in  Knight's  wagon  was  holding  his  com- 
panion in  his  arms.  While  Knight  was  quieting  his  frightened  horseu 
McMurdy  ran  to  Knight's  wagon,  raised  his  gun  and  exclaimed: 

"O,  Lord,  my  God,  receive  their  scirits:  it  is  for  thv  kingdom  that 
I  do  this!"  The  gun  exploded  and  the  bullet  killed  both  men.  Samuel 
McMurdy  had  surely  "kept  alive  the  spirit  of  the  reformation";  he  had 
vindicated  his  right  to  hold  the  "holy"  Mormon  priesthood,  and  to  be 
first  counselor  to  Bishop  Klingensmith. 

According  to  Nephi  Johnson  less  than  three  minutes  were  consumed 
in  the  work  of  death. 

During  the  excitement  and  confusion  attending  the  massacre,  two 
girls,  Kachel  and  Euth  Dunlap,  made  a  desperate  attempt  to  escape  the 
carnage.  From  the  evidence,  and  from  a  careful  study  of  the  ground, 
the  girls  must  have  been  on  the  north  side  of  the  group  of  women  and 
children  when  the  attack  was  made.  Running  to  the  east  on  the  north 
side  of  Knight  and  McMurdy 's  wagons,  they  turned  to  the  south  and  sped 
toward  the  bench,  where  clumps  of  oak  bushes  seemed  to  invite  them  to 
a  temporary  refuge.  Clambering  down  the  steep  side  of  the  gully  they 
crept  into  the  oaks  on  the  opposite  brink.  They  were  then  about  thirty 
rods  from  the  scene  of  death,  over  which  the  smoke  from  exploding  fire- 
arms hung  in  a  hazy  cloud  from  which  there  no  longer  issued  protesting 
cries  of  women  and  the  pitiful  screams  of  children. 

During  a  few  brief  minutes  Eachel  and  Euth  Dunlap  believed  they 
were  saved  from  the  white  and  red  butchers.  Very  likely  no  thought  en- 
tered their  minds  of  the  fate  that  awaited  them  on  the  desert — the  thirst 
and  hunger  that  surely  lurked  for  them  amid  the  inextricable  maze  of  hills 
and  desert  canyons.  They  dreamed  not  that  if  they  escaped  to  some 
habitation  the  occupants,  under  pain  of  death,  must  surrender  them  to 
the  blood  atoning  priests  because,  forsooth,  they  were  old  enough  to  tell 
the  story  of  the  massacre.  Their  only  hope  was  to  see  the  setting  of  the 
sun  and  to  feel  the  sheltering  mantle  of  night  descend  upon  tjiem. 

One  or  more  of  the  assassins  must  have  seen  the  terrified  girls  as 
they  raced  toward  the  gully  and  reported  the  fact  to  the  chief  from  Paro- 
wan,  who  found  the  girls  and  dragged  them  from  their  hiding  place.  The 
Indian  sent  for  Lee,  and  on  his  arrival  asked  what  should  be  done  with 
them.  When  informed  that  they  were  beyond  the  age  limit  prescribed  by 
Haight,  the  chief  pleaded  that  they  were  "too  pretty  to  be  killed." 
Divining  the  sentence  pronounced  by  Lee,  the  elder  girl  dropped  to  her 
knees  and  with  clasped  hands  cried  out:  "Spare  me,  and  I  will  love 
you  all  my  life!"  But  she  died,  as  her  sister  had  died,  and  at  Lee's 
hands.  (Lee  vehemently  denied  the  awful  charge.)  For  pitiful  story  of 
attempt  by  Hamblin's  Indian  boy  to  save  the  girls,  see  appendix. 

Note. — Since  the  massacre,  rumors  have  been  persistent  to  the  effect 
that  prior  to  their  death  those  girls  were  outraged  by  those  who  murdered 
them.  The  charge  was  so  terrible,  so  diabolical  and  inhuman  that,  as  a 


Mormon,  and  later  on  an  "apostate,"  I  could  not  believe  the  rumor — it 
appeared  to  be  just  another  Mormon  canard  to  further  blacken  the  mem- 
ory of  John  D.  Lee.  There  was,  however,  something  in  the  terms  of  the 
girl 's  appeal  that  is  inexplicable  when  considered  apart  from  the  rumor. 
Last  winter  (1910)  I  met  a  devout  Mormon  woman  in  southern  Utah,  who 
was  a  girl  at  the  date  of  the  massacre,  and  she  assured  me  that  the  rumor 
is  entirely  trustworthy;  that  she  remembers  hearing  the  women  of  St. 
George  discuss  the  awful  fate  of  the  Dunlap  girls.  "And,"  the  lady  con- 
cluded, "we  Mormons  have  never  been  accused  of  charging  crimes  to  our 
people  when  the  accusations  were  not  true. ' ' 

Jacob  Hamblin  was  on  his  way  from  Salt  Lake  to  his  ranch  near  the 
Meadows  when  the  massacre  was  perpetrated.  Hamblin 's  Indian  boy, 
Albert,  who  was  about  sixteen  years  old,  and  whom  the  former  had 


Looking  easterly  from  north  side  of  gully  in  which  the  Dunlap  girls 
were  ravished  and  murdered.  Fig.  1,  clump  of  oak  bushes  in  which  the 
girls  found  temporary  shelter. 

adopted,  was  present  at  the  massacre  and  witnessed  the  ravishment  of 
the  Dunlap  sisters  and  the  cutting  of  their  throats.  On  Hamblin 's  ar- 
rival at  the  ranch  the  boy  conducted  him  to  the  clump  of  oak  brush 
where  the  bodies  of  the  girls,  nude  and  bloated,  furnished  ghastly  evi- 
dence of  the  truth  of  the  young  Indian's  story.  Subsequently,  Hamblin 
interviewed  the  Indian  chief,  who  was  Lee's  partner  in  that  special 
crime,  and  who  verified  the  young  redskin's  story,  and  repeated  the 
words  used  by  the  elder  girl  when  pleading  for  her  life. 

The  above  is  the  substance  of  Hamblin 's  testimony  on  that  incident 
as  given  at  Lee's  second  trial. 

37 


We  will  draw  the  curtain  on  the  scene,  leaving  those  religion-crazed 
fanatics  to  the  judgment  of  a  merciful  God,  and  the  logic  and  lessons 
to  the  public. 


On  the  old  camp  ground  of  the  emigrants  Major  Carleton  of  the 
United  States  army  and  other  kindly  hands  reared  a  monument  of 
boulders  which  cover  the  remains  of  'Captain  Fancher  and  his  company, 
which,  the  spring  following  the  massacre,  were  buried  by  Jacob  Hamblin 
in  the  rifle  pit  digged  by  the  emigrants.  Major  Carleton  also  erected  a 
rude  cross  upon  which  he  carved  the  legend:  "Vengeance  is  mine,  and 
I  will  repay,  saith  the  Lord. ' '  Some  miscreant  destroyed  the  cross. 
Easterly  and  westerly  the  monument  is  about  twelve  feet  long  by  six 


Monument   erected   by   Major  Carleton    over   grave    of   emigrants — Looking 

southerly. 

feet  wide.  The  west  end  is  now  about  four  feet  high,  and  the  east  end 
is  a  foot  or  so  above  the  ground.  From  the  east  end  of  the  grave  the 
earth  descends  to  the  bottom  of  a  deep  gully,  made  by  floods  during  re- 
cent years,  and  unless  protective  measures  are  soon  taken  the  spring  and 
summer  floods  will  eat  away  the  last  visible  evidence  of  the  Mountain 
Meadows  massacre. 


The  once  carpet  of  grass  has  vanished,  and  in  its  place  is  a  d&nse 
growth  of  mountain  sage.  The  spring  that  supplied  the  Fancher  com- 
pany with  water  now  oozes  up  from  a  bog  near  the  bottom  of  the 
gully.  And  all  around  the  landscape  is  an  indescribable  desolation — a 

38 


vista  of  gray  sage  and  barren  hills.  Seemingly,  the  God  of  Justice  has 
visited  the  locality  with  the  withering  blight  of  his  displeasure — but 
Mormonism  yet  lives,  aggressive,  arrogant  and  defiant. 

As  the  occasional  visitor,  with  bared  head,  stands  by  the  desert 
grave,  his  imagination  recalls  the  death  march  up  the  valley.  Through 
the  silence  of  more  than  fifty  years  is  heard  the  echoes  of  exploding 
firearms.  The  shrieks  of  women  and  children  mingle  with  the  frenzied 
cries  of  fiends  incarnate,  then  the  death  like  silence  returns.  He  seems 
to  feel  the  touch  of  spirit  hands,  to  hear  the  murmur  of  spirit  voices 
pleading  for  remembrance  of  their  wrongs,  and  for  human  justice  for  the 
false  and  criminal  leaders  of  the  system  whose  doctrines  and  example 
inspired  their  destruction,  and  who  continue  to  traduce  their  victims  as 
their  only  defense  of  the  ruthless  murder  of  those  who  surrendered  under 
the  sacred  aegis  of  the  flag  of  peace! 


FUETHEE  DETAILS— FEOM  MAJOE  CAELETON'S  EEPOET. 

Prior  to  the  publication  of  the  foregoing  story  of  the  massacre  re- 
peated efforts  were  made  to  obtain  a  copy  of  Maj.  J.  H.  Carleton  ;s  report 
of  the  tragedy  made  to  the  war  department  during  the  spring  of  1859. 
Each  effort  was  fruitless  until  the  29th  of  this  month,  when,  by  a  fortu- 
nate incident,  it  was  learned  where  the  loan  of  a  copy  could  be  obtained. 

In  the  compilation  of  the  material  from  which  the  major  made 
his  report  it  became  necessary  to  interview  leading  Mormons  then  resid- 
ing in  southern  Utah,  among  whom  was  Jacob  Hamblin,  who  has  been 
sufficiently  introduced  to  the  reader.  And  inasmuch  as  the  participants 
in  the  massacre  had  been  enjoined  to  "keep  silent "  on  the  subject,  and 
all  Mormons  were  interested  in  shielding  their  "brethren"  and  their 
church  from  the 'odium  of  the  crime,  it  was  impossible  to  obtain  the 
truth.  As  has  been  proved  by  Jacob  Hamblin 's  evidence  in  the  second 
trial  of  Lee,  he  knew  every  important  detail  of  the  crime,  but  in  his  in- 
terview with  Major  Carleton  he  placed  the  entire  responsibility  for  the 
tragedy  upon  the  Indians.  When  the  latter  were  interviewed  they  denied 
the  responsibility,  but,  like  their  Mormon  friends,  they  were  reticent  as  to 
the  details  of  the  crime  and  the  identity  of  the  participants. 

It  was  only  by  analysis  of  the  testimony  of  the  Mormons  and  In- 
dians whom  the  major  interviewed,  and  noting  the  numerous  contradic- 
tions, that  he  was  able  to  justly  charge  the  crime  to  the  Mormon  priest- 
hood of  southern  Utah.  Under  such  conditions  it  is  a  marvel  that  Major 
Carleton  was  able  to  sufficiently  unravel  the  entangled  web  of  falsehoods 
to  enter  even  upon  the  confines  of  accuracy.  Every  important  detail  of 
the  major's  report,  not  given  in  the  text  of  this  story  of  the  massacre,  is 
given  in  the  following  excerpta,  which  will  be  highly  appreciated  because 
of  the  additional  information  regarding  the  personnel  of  the  seventeen 
children  saved  from  the  slaughter. 

The  Author,  October  31,  1910. 

The  Muddy  river  branch  of  the  Pahute  Indians,  now  residing  on  the 
reservation  near  Moapa,  on  the  Salt  Lake,  Los  Angeles  &  San  Pedro 
railroad,  were  a  murderous  lot  of  savages  at  the  time  of  the  massacre. 
That,  and  the  additional  fact  that  their  headquarters  were  more  than  150 

39 


miles  from  the  Mountain  Meadows,  doubtless  induced  the  Mormons  to 
implicate  the  Muddy  Indians  in  the  crime.  During  his  determined  efforts 
to  get  at  the  facts  Major  Carleton  interviewed  prominent  men  of  that 
division  of  the  Pahutes.  They  replied  as  follows: 

' '  Where  are  the  wagons,  the  cattle,  the  clothing,  the  rifles,  and  other 
property  belonging  to  the  train?  We  have  not  got  or  had  them.  No; 
you  will  find  these  things  in  the  hands  of  the  Mormons. ' 7 

While  camping  at  the  Mountain  Meadows,  May,  1859,  Major  Carle- 
tjn  interviewed  Mrs.  Jacob  Hamblin,  who  lived  within  two  or  three  miles 
of  the  Meadows  at  the  time  of  the  massacre.  Following  is  the  major's 
report  of  the  interview: 

' '  Mrs.  Hamblin  is  a  simple  minded  person  of  about  45,  and  evidently 
looks  with  the  eyes  of  her  husband  at  everything.  She  may  really  have 
been  taught  by  the  Mormons  to  believe  it  is  no  great  sin  to  kill  Gentiles 
and  enjoy  their  property.  Of  the  shooting  of  the  emigrants,  which  she 
herself  had  heard,  and  knew  at  the  time  what  was  going  on,  she  seemed 
to  speak  without  a  shudder,  or  any  very  great  feeling;  but  when  she  told 
of  the  seventeen  orphan  children  who  were  brought  by  such  a  crowd  to 
her  house  of  one  small  room  there  in  the  darkness  of  the  night,  two  of 
the  children  cruelly  mangled,  and  the  most  of  them  with  their  parents ' 
blood  still  wet  upon  their  clothes,  and  all  of  them  -shrieking  with  grief 
and  terror  and  anguish,  her  own  heart  was  touched.  She  at  least  deserves 
kind  consideration  for  her  care  and  nourishment  of  the  three  sisters 
(^Rebecca,  Louisa  and  Sarah  Dunlap,  the  younger  sisters1  of  Eachel  and 
Kuth  Dunlap,  whose  pitiful  fate  has  been  detailed),  and  for  all  she  did 
for  the  little  girl,  about  1  year  old,  who  had  been  shot  through  one  of 
her  arms,  below  the  elbow,  by  a  large  ball,  .breaking  both  bones  and  cut- 
ing  the  arm  half  off." 

A  few  of  the  children  saved  from  the  slaughter  were  subsequently 
taken  to  the  Indian  farm  at  Corn  creek,  where,  it  is  asserted,  the  emi- 
grants had  poisoned  the  water.  One  of  those  girls,  named  Elsie,  so  it  is 
credibly  reported,  remained  at  Corn  creek  and  later  on  became  the  wife 
of  a  highly  respected  stockman — a  gentleman  who  was  widely  known  in 
Utah.  The  other  sixteen  children  were  taken  to  Salt  Lake  City  and  de- 
livered to  Dr.  Forney,  United  States  Indian  agent,  who  sent  them  to 
their  relatives  in  Arkansas  and  other  states.  Of  the  personnel  of  the 
children  Major  Carleton  reported  as  follows: 

"Sixteen  of  these  were  seen  by  Judge  Cradlebaugh,  Lieutenant 
Kearney,  and  others,  and  gave  the  following  information  in  relation  to 
their  personal  identity,  etc.  The  children  varied  from  3  to  9  years  of 
age,  ten  girls,  six  boys,  and  were  questioned  separately.  The  first  is  a 
boy  named  Calvin,  between  7  and  8  years;  does  not  remember  his  sur- 
name; says  he  was  by  his  mother  when  she  was  killed,  and  pulled  the 
arrows  from  her  back  until  she  was  dead;  says  he  had  two  brothers  older 
than  himself,  named  James  and  Henry,  and  three  sisters,  Mary,  Martha 
and  Nancy. 

"The  second  is  a  girl  who  does  not  remember  her  name.  The  others 
say  it  is  Demurr. 

"The  third  is  a  ,boy  named  Ambrose  Miriam  Tagit;  says  he  had  two 
brothers  older  than  himself  and  one  younger.     His  father,  mother  and 

40 


two  elder  brothers  were  killed;  his  younger  brother  was  brought  to  Cedar 
City;  says  he  lived  in  Johnston  county,  but  does  not  know  what  state; 
says  it  took  one  week  to  go  from  where  he  lived  to  his  grandfather's  and 
grandmother's,  who  are  still  living  in  the  states. 

1  i  The  fourth  is  a  girl  obtained  from  John  Morris,  a  Mormon,  at  Cedar 
City.  She  does  not  recollect  anything  about  herself. 

Fifth,  a  boy  obtained  from  E.  H.  Grove;  says  the  girl  obtained  from 
Morris  is  named  Mary  and  is  his  sister. 

"The  sixth  is  a  girl  who  says  her  name  is  Prudence  Angelina;  had 
two  brothers,  Jesse  and  John,  who  were  killed.  Her  father's  name  was 
William,  and  she  had  an  uncle  Jesse. 

"The  seventh  is  a  girl.  She  says  her  name  is  Frances  Harris,  or 
Home;  remembers  nothing  of  her  family. 

"The  eighth  is  a  boy  too  young  to  remember  anything  about  him- 
self. 

1 '  The  ninth  is  a  boy  whose  name  is  William  W.  Huff. 

"The  tenth  is  a  boy  whose  name  is  Charles  Francher"   (Fancher). 

(Note, — Charles  Fancher  was  the  son  of  Capt.  Charles  Fancher,  who 
was  in  command  of  the  train,  and  was  11  years  old.  He  was  small  for  his 
age.  He  Tiad  a  brother  about  9  years  of  age,  who  was  also  small  for  his 
years,  and  which,  no  doubt,  was  the  reason  for  their  escape  from  the 
fate  of  those  who  were  believed  to  be  over  8  years  old.  Mormon  children 
are  baptised  at  8  years,  when,  from  the  Mormon  viewpoint,  they  reach 
the  age  of  responsibility.  Thus  it  was  that  the  emigrant  children  under 
8  years  were  not  regarded  by  the  Mormon  priests  as  being  responsible 
for  the  sins  of  their  parents,  who  were  murdered  in  obedience  to  the 
endowment  oath  to  "avenge  the  blood  of  the  (Mormon)  prophets  and 
martyrs. ' '  It  was  from  the  lips  of  Charley  Fancher,  soon  after  his  ar- 
rival from  the  vicinity  of  the  tragedy,  that  I  heard  the  first  story  of  the 
massacre.  In  his  childish  way  he  said  that  "some  of  the  Indians,  after 
the  slaughter,  went  to  the  little  creek,  and  that  after  washing  their  faces 
they  were  white  men. ' '  During  his  stay  in  Salt  Lake  City  I  frequently 
played  marbles  with  Charley  Fancher  on  First  South,  a  half  block  or  so 
west  of  Main  street. — The  Author.) 

"The  eleventh  is  a  girl  who  says  her  name  is  Sophronia  Huff. 

"The  twelfth  is  a  girl  who  says  her  name  is  Betsy. 

"The  thirteenth,  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  are  three  sisters  named  Be- 
becca,  Louisa  and  Sarah  Dunlap.  These  three  sisters  were  the  children 
obtained  from  Jacob  Hamblin. 

"I  have  no  note  of  the  sixteenth. 

"The  seventeenth  is  a  boy  who  was  but  6  years  old  at  the  time  of 
the  massacre.  Hamblin  ;s  wne  brought  him  to  my  camp  on  the  19th  in- 
stant. The  next  day  they  took  him  on  to  Salt  Lake  City  to  give  him 
up  to  Dr.  Forney.  He  is  a  pretty  little  boy  and  hardly  dreamed  he  had 
again  slept  on  the  ground  where  his  parents  had  been  murdered." 

It  was  twenty  months  after  the  massacre  when  Major  Carleton  en- 
camped on  the  Meadows.  His  description  of  conditions  will  be  inter- 
esting. He  said: 

"The  scene  of  the  massacre,  even  at  this  late  day,  was  horrible  to 
look  upon.  Women 's  hair,  in  detached  locks  and  masses,  hung  to  the 

41 


«c*ge  bushes  and  was  strewn  over  the  ground  in  many  places.  Parts  of 
little  children's  and  of  female  costumes  dangled  from  the  shrubbery  or 
lay'  scattered  about. ' ' 

From  Major  Carleton's  statement  of  the  number  of  skulls  and  other 
human  bones  which  he  gathered  up  and  buried,  it  is  evident  that  Jacob 
Hamblin's  statement  of  the  number  of  skeletons  which  he  collected  and 
buried  was  exaggerated,  or  that  there  were  many  more  people  in  the  com- 
pany than  has  been  heretofore  estimated.  And  some  of  the  bones  were 
found  a  mile  or  so  from  the  old  camp  ground,  at  points  to  which  the 
coyotes  had  dragged  them. 


42 


TKlAL  AND  EXECUTION  OF  JOHN  D.  LEE. 

During  the  year  1875  Lee  was  tried  for  his  part  in  the  massacre. 
There  were  seven  Mormons  and  five  Gentiles  on  the  jury.  It  was  a  mis- 
trial. The  Gentiles  voted  for  conviction,  the  Mormons  for  acquittal. 
The  wave  of  indignation  that  swept  over  the  United  States  convinced  the 
Mormon  leaders  that  at  least  one  Mormon  must  be  sacrificed  in  the 
interest  of  their  church.  Haight  and  Higbee  were  hiding  in  the  wilds  of 
Arizona  or  Mexico.  Klingensmith  had  taken  refuge  with  a  band  of  In- 
dians in  Arizona  at  a  place  on  the  south  side  of  the  Colorado  river,  op- 
posite Eldorado  canyon,  in  southern  Nevada,  where  he  took  unto  himself 
a  squaw  as  his  fourth  or  fifth  wife.  He  voluntarily  became  a  witness 
for  the  people  during  the  first  trial  of  Lee.  He  saved  his  neck,  but  lied 
with  such  facility  that  his  evidence  was  of  no  value  to  the  government, 
and  after  his  discharge  he  returned  to  his  wickiup  on  the  Colorado. 

The  second  trial  of  Lee  occurred  in  September,  1876.  The  Mormon 
witnesses  that  could  not  be  found  during  the  first  trial  were  easily 
located  for  the  second  trial,  and  became  eager  witnesses  on  every  fea- 
ture of  the  evidence  that  was  necessary  to  convict  John  D.  Lee.  But 
the  attorneys  for  the  government  found  it  impossible  to  awaken  the 
slumbering  memories  of  the  elders  of  any  evidence  that  would  convict 
others  of  the  assassins. 

Another  significant  feature  of  the  trial  was  that  the  marshal  who 
subpoenaed  the  jurors  must  have  received  a  "hunch,"  for  he  secured  as 
many  Mormon  jurors  as  the  law  permitted. 

It  was  believed  by  the  marshal  who  had  charge  of  the  arrangements 
for  Lee's  execution  that  if  the  Mountain  Meadows  were  selected  as  the 
place  for  the  final  ordeal  that  the  condemned  man  might,  on  the  tragic 
ground,  be  induced  to  make  a  statement  of  the  inside  facts  which 
would  enable  the  representatives  of  the  government  to  work  more  intel- 
ligently in  the  matter  of  bringing  other  guilty  men  to  justice. 

It  was  about  10  a.  m.,  March  23,  1877,  when  Lee  and  his  execu- 
tioners arrived  at  the  Meadows.  Photographer  James  Fennemore  of 
Beaver,  where  Lee  was  tried;  Josiah  Eogerson,  a  Mormon  telegrapher; 
a  number  of  newspaper  correspondents,  including  S.  A.  Kenner  of  the 
Deseret  News,  and  a  small  number  of  spectators  were  present. 

Prior  to  the  execution  Lee  accompanied  the  marshal  and  a  number 
of  those  present  over  the  field  and  pointed  out  the  respective  localities 
of  chief est  interest.  But  no  useful  information  was  divulged. 

Lee's  coffin  was  brought  from  the  wagon  and  placed  near  the  mound 
of  stones  which  cover  the  remains  of  the  emigrants. 

A  covered  wagon  was  drawn  up  to  within  a  few  paces  of  the  coffin. 
Five  holes  had  been  made  in  the  cover,  and  five  men  were  seen  to  dis- 
appear within  the  wagon. 

43 


,5? 


Standing  near  his  final  receptacle,  Lee  made  a  brief  farewell  speech 
in  which  he  denied  any  intent  to  do  wrong.  He  claimed,  and  rightly, 
too,  that  he  had  been  betrayed — sacrificed  in  the  interest  of  the  church 
to  which  he  had  given  his  whole  life.  Continuing,  the  doomed  man  said: 

"Still,  there  are  thousands  of  people  in  this  church  that  are  honora- 
ble and  good  hearted  friends,  some  of  whom  are  near  to  my  heart.  There 
is  a  kind  of  living,  magnetic  influence  which  has  come  over  the  people, 
and  I  cannot  compare  it  to  anything  else  than  the  reptile  that  enamores 
its  prey  till  it  captivates  it,  paralyzes  it,  and  it  rushes  into  the  jaws  of 
death.  I  cannot  compare  it  to  anything  else.  It  is  so.  I  know  it.  I 
am  satisfied  of  it." 

Lee's  vision  swept  the  scene  of  former  carnage.  He  looked  out  on 
the  repulsive  ridge  from  which  had  been  poured  the  deadly  missiles  into 
the  emigrant  camp.  Furtively  he  glanced  at  the  monument  erected  by 
Major  Carleton.  Mortals  will  never  know  the  thoughts  that,  with  tor- 
rential confusion,  leaped  through  the  brain  of  the  doomed  man  as  he 
sat  down  on  his  coffin  for  the  crucial  ordeal.  He  asked  that  his  arms  be 
not  pinioned,  and  that  his  eyes  be  not  bandaged.  The  first  request  was 
granted.  United  States  Marshal  William  Nelson  fastened  a  handker- 
chief over  Lee's  eyes,  then  stepped  to  one  side.  Lee  clasped  his  hands 
over  his  head  and  said  to  the  marshal:  "Let  them  shoot  the  balls 
through  my  heart!  Don't  let  them  mangle  my  body!  " 

The  marshal  called  "Beady,  aim,  fire!"  A  sharp,  simultaneous 
explosion,  and  the  victim  of  unquestioning  obedience  had  paid  the  mortal 
demand  for  vengeance,  had  satisfied  the  doctrine  of  human  justice! 


Lee  was  the  husband  of  nineteen  wives,  one  of  whom,  however,  was 
a  "spiritual"  wife.  By  eighteen  of  his  wives  he  had  sixty-four  chil- 
dren, fifty-four  of  whom  were  living  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

His  last  wife,  Ann  Gorge,  was  married  to  him  by  Heber  C.  Kimball 
about  1865,  which  created  considerable  gossip  among  the  Saints  of 
southern  Utah  where  every  incident  of  the  massacre  was  well  known. 
And  it  will  be  proved  by  the  evidence  of  Jacob  Ham.blin,  given  at  Lee's 
second  trial,  that  Brigham  Young  and  his  second  counselor,  George  A. 
Smith,  knew  every  detail  of  the  massacre  which  was  known  to  Jacob 
Hamblin,  and  he  knew  all  of  the  facts  and  the  name  of  every  prominent 
participant  within  a  very  short  time  after  the  occurrence  of  the  tragedy. 

At  the  time  of  Lee's  interview,  on  September  29,  as  proved  in  the 
appendix  herewith,  Lee  told  President  Young  that  there  was  "not  a 
drop  of  innocent  blood  in  the  company"  of  emigrants.  If  no  "innocent 
blood"  was  shed  at  the  Meadows,  under  the  "revelation"  on  plural 
marriage  given  to  the  first  "prophet,"  then  was  John  D.  Lee  and  the 
other  assassins  guiltless  before  the  Mormon  god,  and  there  was  no  ob- 
stacle in  the  way  of  Lee  and  Haight  taking  more  plurals  after  the  mas- 
sacre, and  becoming  members  of  the  Utah  legislature.  Indeed,  the  addi- 
tion to  their  harems  of  more  plurals  was,  according  to  the  polygamy 
"revelation,"  a  certain  means  of  salvation  and  exaltation.  Under  the 
teachings  of  that  "revelation"  the  debauching  and  murder  of  the  Dun- 
lap  girls  was  no  bar  to  the  highest  exaltation  in  the  Mormon  "celestial 

45 


Immediately  after  the  execution— Note  the  weird  forms  above  the  coffin. 

March    23,    1877. 


kingdom  of  God"!  Paragraph  26  of  the  ''revelation"  reads  as  follows: 
"Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you  (Joseph  Smith),  if  a  man  marry  a 
wife  (or  wives)  according  to  my  word,  and  they  are  sealed  by  the  holy 
spirit  of  promise,  according  to  mine  appointment,  and  he  or  she  shall 
commit  any  sin  or  transgression  of  the  new  and  everlasting  covenant 
whatever,  and  all  manner  of  blasphemies,  and  if  they  commit  no  murder, 
wherein  they  shed  innocent  blood — yet  shall  they  come  forth  in  the  first 
resurrection,  and  enter  into  their  exaltation.  .  .  ." 

For  further  details  and  particulars  regarding  the  culpability  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Mormon  church,  the  reader  is  respectfully  referred  to  the 
appendix  herewith. 


APPENDIX. 
TESTIMONY  OF  LABAN  MORRILL— SECOND  TRIAL  OF  LEE. 

Laban  Morrill  moved  from  Johnson's  fort  and  became  one  of  the  pio- 
neers of  Piute  county,  settling  at  Junction,  now  the  county  seat.  He  died 
some  ten  or  fifteen  years  ago;  leaving  a  large  family  which,  like  their 
father,  is  highly  respected. 

At  the  second  trial  of  Lee,  and  after  the  usual  preliminaries,  Mr. 
Morrill  testified  as  follows: 

"We  had  formed  a  kind  of  custom  to  come  together  about  once  a 
week,  to  take  into  consideration  what  would  be  the  best  good  for  those 
places.  I  happened  on  Sunday  (about  September  7)  to  come  to  Cedar 
City,  as  I  usually  came,  and  there  seemed  to  be  a  council.  We  met  to- 
gether about  4  o'clock,  as  a  general  thing,  on  Sunday  evening  after  ser 
vice.  I  went  into  the  council  and  saw  there  a  little  excitement  in  regard 
to  something  I  did  not  understand.  I  went  in  at  a  rather  late  hour.  I 
inquired  of  the  rest  what  the  matter  was.  They  said  a  company  had 
passed  along  toward  Mountain  Meadows.  There  were  many  threats  given 
concerning  this  company. 

"As  I  said,  there  appeared  to  be  some  confusion  in  that  council.  I 
inquired  in  a  friendly  way,  what  was  up.  I  was  told  that  there  was  an 
emigrant  train  that  passed  along  down  near  Mountain  Meadows,  and 
that  they  had  made  threats  in  regard  to  us  as  a  people — said  they  would 
destroy  every  d — d  Mormon.  There  was  an  army  coming  on  the  south 
and  north,  and  it  created  some  little  excitement.  I  made  two  or  three 
replies  in  a  kind  of  debate  measure  that  were  taken  into  consideration, 
discussing  the  object,  what  method  we  thought  best  to  take  in  regard  to 
protecting  the  lives  of  the  citizens. 

"My  objections  were  not  coincided  with.  At  last  we  touched  upon 
the  topic  like  this:  We  should  still  keep  quiet,  and  a  dispatch  should  be 
sent  to  Governor  Young  to  know  what  would  be  the  best  course.  The 
vote  was  unanimous.  I  considered  it  so.  It  seemed  to  be  the  understand- 
ing that  on  the  coming  morning,  or  the  next  day,  there  should  be  a  mes- 
senger dispatched.  I  took  seme  pains  to  inquire  and  know  if  it  would 
be  sent  in  the  morning.  The  papers  were  said  to  be  made  out,  and  Gov- 
ernor Young  should  be  informed,  and  no  hostile  course  pursued  until  his 
return.  I  returned  back  to  Fort  Johnson,  feeling  that  all  was  well.  About 
eight  and  forty  hours  before  the  messenger  returned — business  called  me 
to  Cedar  City,  and  I  learned  that  the  job  had  taken  place.  I  can't  give 
any  further  evidence  on  the  subject  at  present." 

W.  W.  Bishop,  counsel  for  Lee,  elicited  the  information  from  Mr.  Mor- 
rill that  when  he  referred  to  "the  job"  he  meant  the  killing  of  the  em- 
igrants. United  States  District  Attorney  Howard  then  put  the  following 
re-direct  questions: 

48 


Ques. — Did  you  say  that  a  messenger  was  to  be  sent  down  to  John 
D.  Lee? 

Ans. — I  did,  but  I  did  not  see  him  start.  I  understood  at  the  time  a 
messenger  was  to  be  sent. 

Ques. — What  did  you  understand? 

Ans. — I  understood  there  was  to  be  word  sent  down  towards  Pinto 
creek. 

Ques. — For  what  purpose? 

Ans. — To  have  the  thing  stayed  according  to  contract,  to  agreement 
made. 

Ques. — What  do  you  mean  by  the  thing  being  stayed?  Was  the  mas- 
sacre of  that  emigrant  train  discussed  there  at  all? 

Ans. — It  was,  sir;     and  some  were  in  favor  of  it,  and  some  were  not. 

Ques. — Who  were  they? 

Ans. — Bishop  Smith  (Klingensmith)  I  considered,  was  the  hardest 
man  I  had  to  contend  with. 

Ques. — Who  else  spoke  about  it? 

Ans. — Isaac  Haight  and  one  or  two  others.  I  recollect  my  compan- 
ions more  than  any  one  else. 

Ques. — They  were  very  anxious  and  rabid,  were  they  not? 

Ans. — They  seemed  to  think  it  would  be  best  to  kill  the  emigrants. 
Some  of  the  emigrants  swore  that  they  had  killed  old  Joseph  Smith;  there 
was  quite  a  little  excitement  there.- 

Ques. — You  have  given  us  the  names  of  two  who  were  in  favor  of 
killing  those  emigrants — who  were  the  others? 

Ans. — Those  were  my  companions,  Isaac  C.  Haight  and  Klingen- 
smith. I  recollect  no  others: 


And  who  after  reading  the  testimony  of  Laban  Morrill,  and  noting 
his  sincerity  under  the  most  trying  conditions — to  tell  the  truth,  and  to 
shield  others  of  the  elders,  can  deny  that  the  conspiracy  to  murder  the 
emigrants  was  initiated  by  the  direct  agent  of  the  Mormon  leaders,  and 
was  discussed  in  a  priesthood  meeting  of  the  chief  ecclesiastical  authori- 
ties of  the  Parowan  stake  of  Zion? 


TESTIMONY  OF  JACOB  HAMBLIN— SECOND   TRIAL  OF  LEE. 

Question  by  Howard — Who  else  did  he  mention? 

Ans. — He  mentioned  my  brother  (Oscar  Hamblin)  being  there, 
bringing  some  Indians  there.  Sent  Mm  word  of  this  affair  (the  massa- 
cre) taking  place,  and  for  him  to  go  and  get  the  Indians,  and  bring  up 
the  Santa  Clara  Indians. 

Ques. — Your  brother,  then,  brought  the  Indians  to  the  Meadows,  and 
then  left  there? 

Ans. — Yes,  he  told  me  so.  (The  fact  is,  if  Oscar  Hamblin  left  the 
Meadows  after  taking  the  Indians  there,  he  returned  and  aided  Lee  in 
restraining  them  when  they  made  their  second  attack  on  the  emigrants.) 

Qustion  by  bishop — Have  you  ever  given  a  report  of  it  (the  mas- 
sacre) to  any  of  your  superiors  in  the  church,  or  officers  over  you? 

49 


Ans. — Well,  I  did  speak  of  it  to  President  Young  and  George  A. 
Smith. 

Ques. — Did  you  give  them  the  whole  facts? 

Ans. — I  gave  them  more  than  I  have  here,  because  I  recollected 
more  of  it. 

Ques. — When  did  you  do  that? 

Ans. — Pretty  soon  after  it  happened. 

Ques. — You  are  certain  that  you  gave  it  fuller  than  you  have  told 
it  here  on  the  stand? 

Ans. — I  told  everything  I  could. 

Ques. — Have  you  told  it  all? 

Ans. — No,  sir,  I  have  not. 

Ques. — Then  tell  it. 

Ans. — I  will  not  undertake  that  now.  I  would  not  like  to  under- 
take it. 


TESTIMONY  OF  NEPHI  JOHNSON— SECOND   TRIAL   OF  LEE. 

Question  by  Bishop — State  whether  you  were  under  any  compulsion 
(to  go  to  the  Meadows). 

Ans. — I  didn't  think  it  was  safe  for  me  to  object. 

Ques. — Explain  what  you  mean,  that  is  what  I  want.  Where  was 
the  danger — who  was  the  daiiger  to  come  from  if  you  objected — from 
Haight  or  those  around  him — from  the  Indians,  or  from  the  emigrants? 

Ans. — From  the  military  officers. 

Ques. — Where  ? 

Ans. — At  Cedar  City. 

Ques. — Was  Haight  one  of  those  military  officers? 

Ans. — Yes,  sir. 

Ques. — Who  was  the  highest  military  officer  in  Cedar  City  at  that' 
time? 

Ans. — I  think  it  was  Isaac  C.  Haight. 

Ques. — You  thought  it  would  not  be  safe  to  refuse;  had  you  any 
reason  to  fear  danger — has  any  person  ever  been  injured  for  not  obeying, 
or  anything  of  that  kind? 

Ans. — I  don't  want  to  answer. 

Ques. — It  is  necessary  to  the  safety  of  the  man  I  am  defending, 
and  I  therefore  insist  upon  au  answer.  Had  any  person  been  injured  for 
not  obeying? 

Ans. — Yes,  sir,  they  had. 

Question  by  Howard — Were  you  acquainted  with  the  Indians — the 
Pah  Vant  (Pahvan)  Indians? 

Ans. — Yes,  sir;     somewhat  acquainted.     .     ." 

Ques. — Were  any  of  the  Pah  Vant  Indians  down  there? 

Ans. — I  didn't  see  any. 

During  the  night  of  the  day  of  the  massacre  President  Isaac  C. 
Haight  and  Bishop  William  If.  Dame  arrived  from  Cedar  and  Parowan, 
respectively,  and  camped  at  Hamblin's  ranch.  The  next  morning,  with 
John  D.  Lee,  they  visited  the  scene  of  the  carnage  where  sixty  men, 

50 


forty  women  and  about  thirty  children  were  lying  naked  on  the  ground, 
having  been  stripped  of  their  clothing  and  jewelry. 

Haight,  Dame  and  other  leading  elders  made  speeches,  the  substance 
of  which  may  be  gathered  from  answers  by  Nephi  Johnson  to  questions 
asked  by  W.  W.  Bishop,  Lee's  attorney. 

Ques. — Is  it  not  a  fact  that  after  the  property  was  all  gathered  up 
at  the  Meadows,  and  you  were  ready  to  start  for  Iron  Springs,  that 
speeches  were  made  to  the  men  present,  by  those  in  authority,  in  which 
speeches  you  were  ordered  to  keep  it  a  secret  forever? 

Ans. — There  were  a  great,  many  speeches  made. 

Ques. — At  the  Meadows,  before  you  left  there,  was  it  not  told  you 
in  a  speech  then  made  to  you,  that  it  must  ,be  kept  a  secret;  that  it 
would  be  best  to  keep  silent?  Were  not  you  so  advised  by  your  leaders? 

Ans. — Yes,  sir. 

IN  DEFENSE  OF  THE  EMIGRANTS. 

In  reply  to  my  inquiry  of  Frank  E.  King  as  to  the  conduct  of  the 
people  who  were  traveling  in  the  Fancher  company,  he  replied,  under 
date  of  March  15,  1910,  as  follows: 

"From  the  time  that  we  overtook  them  (at  Pacific  Springs)  they 
were  not  boisterous,  or  in  any  way  uncivil.  You  would  hardly  ever  hear 
an  oath  from  any  one." 

Although  to  the  point,  Mr.  King's  replies  were  brief,  as  he  always 
was  in  his  intercourse  with  his  fellow  men. 

The  following  affidavit  is  self  explanatory: 

"State  of  Utah,  County  of  Piute— ss. 

"William  L.  Jones,  Eeuben  De  Wit,  George  T.  Henry  and  Josiah  F. 
Gibbs,  being  first  duly  sworn,  and  each  for  himself,  deposes  and  says: 
We  are  residents  of  Marysvale,  Piute  county,  Utah.  And  that  during 
our  residence  in  Marysvale  we  were  personally  acquainted,  during  a 
period  of  more  than  twenty  years,  with  Frank  E.  King  who,  until  about 
five  years  ago,  was  also  a  resident  of  Marysvale,  Piute  county,  and  that 
the  said  Frank  E.  King  was  an  industrious,  upright  citizen,  and  of  un- 
questioned veracity. 

(Signed)  "WILLIAM  L.  JONES,  (ex-Postmaster.) 

< '  REUBEN   DE    WIT,  (Justice  of  the  Peace.) 
"GEOKGE  T.  HENEY,   (Postmaster.) 
"JOSIAH  F.  GIBBS." 
"Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me,  tris  15th  day  of  August,  1910. 

"WILLIAM  E.  WHITE,  Notary  Public. 
"My  commission  expires  March  16,  1913." 

An  estimable  lady  (a  Mrs.  Evans),  yet  living  at  Parowan,  visited 
the  camp  of  the  emigrants  at  Parowan  with  other  Mormon  girls,  and  is 
earnest  in  her  statement  that  in  every  respect  the  emigrants  conducted 
themselves  as  ladies  and  gentlemen.  Her  statement  was  made  to  a  gen- 
tleman of  high  repute  in  the  official  life  of  Utah,  and  is  published  with- 
out the  knowledge  of  either  of  them. 

51 


The  charge  that  the  emigrants  resisted  arrest  at  Cedar  clearly 
proves  that  they  declined  to  ask  for  permits,  and  for  which  the  inex- 
pressibly detestable  ecclesiastical  tyrant,  Isaac  C.  Haight,  commanded 
their  arrest.  The  demand  was  made  by  the  emissaries  of  a  fanatical 
and  brutalized  priesthood  that  was  then  in  open  rebellion  against  the 
United  States.  In  resisting  arrest  by  the  servile  agents  of  the  Mormon 
"prophets,"  because  they  ignored  the  right  of  bigots  and  rebels  to  pre- 
vent them  from  passing  through  a  portion  of  the  domain  of  the  United 
States  until  they  secured  passes,  they  were  guiltless  of  infraction  of  any 
law,  rule  or  order  of  their  country,  and  were  justified  in  their  resistance. 

The  Arkansas  company  was  composed  of  representative  American 
citizens — prosperous  men  and  women  who  were  seeking  homes  in  the 
"Golden  West."  And  after  being  murdered  under  a  flag  of  truce  they 
were  stripped  of  their  clothing  and  left  naked  upon  the  desert,  a  prey  to 
coyotes.  Their  property  was  divided  among  their  assassins — an  aggre- 
gation of  religion  crazed  bandits  whose  only  defense  of  their  crime  is  the 
unsupported  charge  that  the  emigrants  cursed  the  Mormons  and  boasted 
of  having  helped  "kill  old  Joseph  Smith." 

As  an  illustration  of  the  desperate  and  lying  defense  of  the  Mormon 
"prophets,"  and  in  defiance  of  the  fact  that  Jacob  Hamblin  told  him 
the  whole  truth  of  the  massacre,  Brigham  Young,  on  January  6,  1858, 
wrote  James  W.  Denver,  commissioner  of  Indian  affairs,  Washington,  D. 
C.,  as  follows: 

"Sir:'  On  or  about  the  middle  of  last  September  a  company  of  emi- 
grants traveling  the  southern  route  to  California,  poisoned  the  meat  of 
an  ox  that  died,  and  gave  it  to  the  Indians  to  eat,  causing  the  immediate 
death  of  four  of  their  tribe,  and  poisoning  several  others.  This  company 
also  poisoned  the  water  where  they  were  encamped.  This  occurred  at 
Corn  creek,  fifteen  miles  from  Fillmore  City.  This  conduct  so  enraged 
the  Indians  that  they  took  measures  for  revenge." 

The  above  letter  from  Brigham  Young  to  James  W.  Denver  has  been 
herein  proved  to  be  totally  and  wickedly  false,  and  as  such,  and  as  the 
best  that  the  chief  "prophet"  could  djo  to  besmirch  the  memory  of  the 
emigrants,  furnishes  a  complete  vindication  of  the  character  of  the  com- 
pany that  perished  at  the  hands  of  Brigham  Young's  slaves  at  the  Moun- 
tain Meadows  on  or  about  September  16,  1857. 


And,  in  the  final  analysis,  the  reader  should  remember  that  Isaac 
C.  Haight  and  others  of  the  leading  priesthood  of  the  Parowan  stake  of 
Zion,  some  seven  or  eight  days  before  the  massacre,  sent  a  message  by 
James  II.  Haslam  to  President  Young  inquiring  as  to  the  disposal  of  the 
emigrants.  President  Young's  reply:  "Permit  the  emigrants  to  go  in 
peace,"  and  his  admonition  to  Haslam  "not  to  spare  horseflesh,"  so 
often  and  fervently  quoted  by  Mormons,  proves  that  President  Young 
knew  that  the  fate  of  the  emigrants  was  at  the  disposal  of  the  priest- 
hood of  the  Parowan  stake  of  Zion,  and  not  at  the  disposal  of  the  In- 
dians. He  had  guilty  knowledge  that  the  massacre  was  contemplated 

52 


by  his  slaves  in  Iron  county.  And  although  his  farseeing  statesmanship 
grasped  the  consequences  of  the  deed,  and  although,  when  too  late,  and 
as  a  matter  of  policy,  he  did  all  that  he  could  to  stay  the  hands  of  his 
blood  atoning  assassins,  he  knew,  when  the  massacre  had  been  consum- 
mated, by  whom  the  hellish  deed  had  been  done.  Therefore,  his  letter 
to  James  W.  Denver  is  proved  to  have  been  false  in  every  respect,  and 
that  President  Young  descended  to  falsehood — even  perjury — as  a  meas- 
ure of  protection  for  his  people  and  his  church. 


ELDER  PENROSE  'S  ''DEFENSE"  OF  BRIGHAM  YOUNG 
AND  THE  CHURCH. 


On  the  evening  of  October  26,  1884,  Elder  Charles  W.  Penrose,  then 
editor  of  the  Deseret  News,  and  since  elevated  to  the  apostolate,  made 
a  lengthy,  rambling  and  mendacious  address  to  a  large  audience  of 
Saints  in  the  twelfth  ecclesiastical  ward  meeting  house,  Salt  Lake  City, 
and  attempted  to  dispel  the  shadow  that  can  never  be  lifted  from  the 
memory  of  those  who,  by  their  teachings  and  gross  fanaticism,  were  re- 
sponsible for  the  Mountain  Meadows  massacre.  Penrose  '3  was  the  first 
extended  attempt  to.  defend  the  Mormon  "prophets,"  and  it  was  a  total 
failure. 

In  September,  1875,  Brigham  Young  was  summoned  to  appear  as  a 
witness  in  the  first  trial  of  John  D.  Lee.  The  condition  of  his  health 
would  not  permit  of  his  attendance,  and  in  lieu  thereof,  certain  interro- 
gatories were  forwarded  to  him  at  Salt  Lake  City,  and  which  were  an- 
swered by  him  under  oath. 

One  question,  only,  and  its  answer  are  all  that  is  required  to  prove 
that  Brigham  Young,  or  other  affiants,  testified  falsely. 

Question  ninth  —  Did  John  D.  Lee  report  to  you  at  any  time  after 
this  massacre  what  had  been  done  at  that  massacre,  and  if  so,  what  reply 
did  you  make  to  him  in  reference  thereto?" 

Answer  —  Within  some  two  or  three  months  after  the  massacre  he 
called  at  my  office  and  had  much  to  say  with  regard  to  the  Indians,  their 
being  stirred  up  to  anger  and  threatening  the  settlements  of  the  whites, 
and  then  commenced  giving  an  account  of  the  massacre.  I  told  him  to 
•stop,  as  from  what  I  had  already  heard  by  rumor,  I  did  not  wish  my 
feelings  harrowed  up  with  a  recital  of  detail.  '  ' 

With  seeming  glee  Elder  Penrose  quotes  the  above  affidavit  to 
prove  that  it  was  some  time  after  the  massacre  before  President  Young 
knew  anything  about  the  affair  further  than  "rumor,"  and  that  he 
would  not  permit  Lee  to  tell  the  story.  Then,  with  singular  stupidity, 
Elder  Penrose  proceeds  to  prove  that  President  Young  was  a  falsifier  by 
putting  his  son's  affidavit  against  that  of  his  father's.  Elder  Penrose  '&, 
hysterical  zeal  to  also  prove  that  Brigham  Young  did  not  know  that  the 
massacre  had  been  concocted  and  perpetrated  by  the  presiding  priesthood 
of  Iron  county,  led  him  into  the  fatal  error  of  securing  an  affidavit  from 
John  W.  Young  to  prove  that  Lee  charged  the  massacre  to  the  Indians. 
But  that  affidavit  proved  too  much  in  another  respect. 

f.3 


According  to  his  affidavit,  John  W.  Young,  son  of  Brigham  Young, 
was  13  years  old  at  the  time  of  the  massacre,  and  was  office  boy  for 
his  father.  After  stating  those  facts  Mr.  Young  continued  as  follows: 

"I  distinctly  remember  one  day  in  the  latter  part  of  September,  1857, 
being  in  my  father's  office  when  John  D.  Lee,  travel  worn,  entered  the 
office  and  asked  for  a  private  interview  with  Governor  Young. 

"It  is  distinctly  impressed  on  my  mind  beyond  the  power  of  time 
to  efface,  how  Lee  described  the  terrible  deed  which  he  said  was  com- 
mitted by  the  Indians  at  Mountain  Meadows." 

From  John  W.  Young's  affidavit  it  is  learned  that  Lee's  visit  was 
made  immediately  after  the  massacre,  and  that  he  did  not  "stop"  at  the 
command  of  President  Young. 

Not  satisfied  with  pitting  the  affidavit  of  John  W.  Young  against 
that  of  his  father's,  Elder  Penrose  secured  a  statement  from  Apostle 
Wilford  Woodruff  that,  in  every  respect,  supported  the  statements  made 
by  the  "prophet's"  son. 

So  eager  was  Elder  Penrcse  to  prove  his  stupidity  and  to  fix  the 
date  of  Lee's  arrival  at  President  Young's  office,  that  he  examined  the 
voluminous  diary  .kept  by  Apostle  Woodruff  and  discovered  that  it  was 
on  September  29,  1857,  or  thirteen  days  after  the  tragedy  at  Mountain 
Meadows.  No  comment  on  the  Woodruff  and  John  W.  Young  contradic- 
tions to  President  Young's  replies  to  the  interrogatories  in  the  Lee  trial, 
and  to  his  letter  to  James  W.  Denver,  are  necessary. 

Elder  Penrose 's  discourse  in  the  twelfth  ward  was  delivered  more 
than  seven  years  after  the  excution  of  Lee,  and  the  world  then  knew  a 
portion  of  the  truth  relative  to  the  massacre.  And  in  his  anxiety  to 
mitigate  the  hideousness  of  the  crime,  he  committed  the  usual  Mormon 
blunder  of  attacking  the  moral  status  of  the  murdered  emigrants.  If 
that  were  not  his  intent  why  did  he  quote  the  following  paragraph  from 
Apostle  Woodruff's  diary,  and  which  had  not  the  slightest  bearing  on 
the  subject  matter  of  his  discourse? 

1 '  Brother  Lee  said  he  did  not  think  there  was  a  drop  of  innocent 
blood  in  the  camp,  for  he  had  two  of  the  children — (of  the  seventeen 
that  were  saved)  in  his  house,  and  he  could  get  but  one  to  kneel  down  at 
prayer  time,  and  the  other  would  laugh  at  her  for  doing  it,  and  they 
would  swear  like  pirates." 

("You  elders  of  Israel  will  go  into  the  canyons,  and  curse  and 
swear,  G — damn  and  curse  your  oxen,  and  swear  by  him  who  created 
you.  I  am  telling  you  the  truth.  Yes,  you  rip  and  swear  and  curse  as 
bad  as  any  pirates  ever  did." 

Doubtless  Apostle  Woodruff  had,  for  the  moment,  forgotten  the 
above  selection  from  a  sermon  by  Brigham  Young  in  the  early  fifties — 
Journal  of  Discourses,  Vol.  1,  page  211,  and  that  "swearing  like  pirates" 
was  not  regarded  as  evidence  that  there  "was  not  a  drop  of  innocent 
blood"  among  the  "elders  of  Israel";  and  that  profanity  among  the 
Saints  in  1853  was  not  regarded  as  sufficient  cause  for  blood  atoning 
them.  But  the  "elders  of  Israel"  had  entered  into  the  "new  and  ev- 
erlasting covenant,"  and  were,  therefore,  immune  from  all  crimes  "ex- 
cept the  shedding  of  innocent  blood"  or  the  blood  of  the  Mormon 
"prophets.") 

54 


If  the  Indians,  as  alleged  by  John  W.  Young  and  Apostle  Woodruff, 
had  been  the  sole  perpetrators  of  the  crime,  why  the  attempt  to  par- 
tially condone  the  crime  of  the  redskins  who  knew  absolutely  nothing, 
and  cared  less,  of  the  moral  status  of  those  whom  they  murdered?  The 
more  the  "prophets"  and  their  agents  squirm  and  wriggle  in  their  at- 
tempts to  get  from  under  the  fearful  responsibility  for  that  crime  the 
deeper  do  they  sink  into  the  quicksands  of  perfidy  and  guilt. 

The  massacre  occurred  on  or  about  September  16,  and  John  D.  Lee 
was  at  President  Young's  office  on  the  29th.  During  the  interim  Lee 
remained  a  part  of  one  day  at  the  Meadows;  it  required  one  day  for 
Lee  to  reach  his  home  with  the  girls,  and  it  would  require  full  ten  days 
to  make  the  trip  from  Harmony  to  Salt  Lake  City.  Therefore,  the  girls 
might,  possibly,  have  been  at  Lee's  residence  two  days  before  his  de- 
parture for  Salt  Lake  City.  It  was  probably  the  second  day  after  the 
massacre  when  Lee  first  asked  the  girls  to  join  the  family  in  prayers. 
Before  those  children,  less  thar.  8  years  old,  there  was  ever  the  vision  of 
the  slaughter.  No  doubt  the  girls  had  witnessed  the  murder  of  their 
mother,  or  mothers.  Very  likely  they  were  clinging  to  their  skirts  wime 
Lee  and  the  others  struck  them  down.  Doubtless  thev  had  seen  tl&'ir 
older  brothers  and  sisters  slain  by  those  monster  fanatics  of  an  alien 
church.  Very  likely  they  had  heard  McMurdy's  frenzied  cry  of  "O, 
Lord,  my  God,  receive  their  spirits,  it  is  for  thy  kingdom  that  I  do 
this!"  Is  there  wonder,  then,  that  but  one  of  those  children  knelt  at 
prayer  with  the  inhuman  fanatic  whose  hands  were  red  with  the  blood 
of  their  parents? 

And  those  children  "swore  like  pirates!"  On  the  16th  of  this 
month,  September,  1910 — the  fifty-third  anniversary  of  the  massacre, 
while  on  a  visit  to  the  Mountain  Meadows  for  the  purpose  of  investi- 
gating the  condition  of  the  emigrants'  grave,  and  to  secure  photo- 
graphs of  the  grave  and  vicinity,  the  writer  stood  by  the  cairn  on  the 
desert.  In  imagination,  the  emigrants  filed  away  up  the  valley  under 
a  flag  of  truce.  Again  the  silence  of  that  mountain  solitude  was  broken 
by  the  cries  of  women,  the  screams  of  children  and  the  rattle  of  fire- 
arms held  by  those  wretched  victims  of  blind  obedience.  Even  after 
the  lapse  of  fifty-three  years,  "swearing"  would  not  only  have 
been  a  relief,  but  would  have  been  appropriate.  Who,  then,  but  arch- 
hypocrites  could  blame  those  girls  for  swearing?  And  who,  but  fiends 
incarnate,  would  claim  that  "there  was  not  a  drop  of  innocent  blood 
in  the  camp"  because  one  of  those  children  refused  to  worship  at  the 
shrine  of  a  god  who  would  permit  the  representatives  of  his  "holy 
prophets"  to  commit  such  a  diabolical  crime? 

Apologists  for,  and  defenders,  by  implication,  of  the  Mountain  Mea- 
dows massacre  have  ever  attempted  to  palliate  that  crime  by  the  be- 
smirchment  of  the  characters  of  the  slain!  Out  upon  such  driveling, 
sickening  cant  and  hypocrisy! 

In  defiance  of  the  testimony  of  Jacob  Hamblin  during  the  second 
trial  of  Lee  to  the  effect  that  "Pretty  soon  after  it  (the  massacre)  hap- 
pened,' he  "told  them  (President  Young  and  George  A.  Smith)  every- 
thing I  could,"  and  his  story  was  complete,  Apostle  Woodruff,  in  his 
affidavit,  used  by  Elder  Penrose,  affirms  that  neither  he  nor  Brigham 

55 


Young  knew  anything  about  Lee's  participation  in  the  massacre  until 
the  year  1870,  when  they  obtained  the  information  from  Apostle  Eras- 
tus  Snow  of  St.  George,  Utah!  (It  should  be  remembered  that  Jacob 
Hamblin's  report  was  made  tc  Brigham  Young  and  George  A.  Smith.) 
Subsequently  Lee  was  excommunicated  in  Salt  Lake  City,  'instead  of  in 
one  of  the  southern  stakes  of  Zion,  where  he  could  have  secured  wit- 
nesses, and  have  been  "present  in  court."  The  haste  and  irregularity 
of  Lee's  excommunication  prove  that  the  belated  act  was  forced  by  pop- 
ular clamor — that  it  was  merely  an  expedient,  or  grand  stand  play,  with 
the  express  purpose  of  deceiving  the  people  of  the  United  States! 


It  may  be  contended  by  some  of  the  "prophets"  and  their  agents 
that  the  practice  of  blood  atonement  is  a  thing  of  the  past.  But,  from 
the  saints'  viewpoint,  it  is  a  law  of  God,  and  his  laws  are  eternal. 

Given  the  absolute  dominion  for  which  these  latter-day  "prophets77 
are  sleeplessly  working,  the  torrid  sermons  of  Brigham  Young  and 
Jedediah  M.  Grant  would  be  as  mild  in  comparison  as  a  summer  zephyr 
to  the  vitriolic  mouthings  of  the  present  insanely  fanatical  ruler  of  Jo- 
seph Smith's  "Kingdom  of  God." 

The  hell  born  twins  of  unquestioning  obedience  and  blood  atone- 
ment are  merely  sleeping;  the  fires  of  Mormon  fanaticism  are  merely 
smouldering.  Yet,  from  the  darkness  of  moral  blindness  and  bigotry  of 
Mormonism,  the  personality  of  Laban  Morrill  rises  like  a  shaft  of  light, 
and  serves  notice  to  the  world  that  there  are  Mormons  who  are  infi- 
nitely better  than'  their  religion. 


On  a  recent  trip  to  the  Meadows  I  went  over  to  Pinto  and  from  that 
point  visited  the  scene  of  the  massacre.  It  was  my  good  fortune  to  be 
received  at  the  home  of  Benjamin  Platt,  aged  78  years,  who  was  work- 
ing for  John  D.  Lee  at  the  time  of  the  massacre.  Mr.  Platt  is  an  in- 
telligent Englishman,  and  withal  a  devout  member  of  the  Mormon 
church.  It  is  to  Mr.  Platt  that  the  public  is  indebted  for  the  following 
information  which  was  freely  '  imparted  during  the  ride  over  to  the 
Meadows  for  the  purpose  of  securing  photographs  of  the  "monument" 
and  vicinity. 

In  the  context  of  this  story  of  the  masascre  Lee's  version  of  the 
first  attack  by  the  Indians  has  been  given,  "and  in  which  Lee  claims  that 
he  was  not  present.  Mr.  Platt  avers  that  Lee 's  statement  was  not  cor- 
rect, and  that  the  following  version  is  the  truth: 

On  the  Sunday  preceding  the  massacre  fourteen  Indians,  an  escort 
of  the  Cedar  Lamanites,  arrived  at  Lee's  home  at  Harmony.  Lee  ob- 
jected to  accompanying  the  Irdians,  but  after  a  brief  consultation  Lee 
departed  with  them  toward  the  Meadows.  Comanche,  one  of  the  reds, 
objected  to  the  program  of  slaughter,  but  was  finally  induced  to  accom- 
pany the  expedition. 

56 


Mr.  Platt  is  relieved  from  responsibilty  for  the  following  narrative, 
but  it  is  true,  nevertheless.  The  party  camped  at  Leachy  spring.  Dur- 
ing the  night  the  leader  of  the  Indians  dreamed  that  both  his  hands 
were  filled  with  blood,  and  was  alarmed  at  the  significant  omen.  He 
related  his  dream,  the  next  morning,  to  Lee  who  interpreted  the  "double 
handful  of  blood"  as  a  victory  for  the  redmen,  and  that  they  would  se- 
cure the  blood  of  the  emigrants. 

Mr.  Platt 's  statement  regarding  the  day  of  Lee's  departure  agrees 
with  all  the  facts  in  the  case,  and  which  are  as  follows:  The  first  at- 
tack took  place  at  about  daylight  on  Tuesday,  and  after  which  Lee  went 
down  to  the  Santa  Clara  river  where,  according  to  Lee 's  statement,  he 
met  Oscar  Hamblin  and  fourteen  other  white  men  with  a  band  of  In- 
dians. The  second  attack  was  made  on  Wednesday  evening.  On  Thurs- 
day the  militia  arrived  at  the  Meadows.  The  massacre  was  perpetrated 
on  Friday.  Early  on  Saturday  morning  Haight  and  Dame  went  from 
Hamblin 's  ranch  over  to  the  Meadows,  and  after  viewing  the  results  of 
the  slaughter,  and  admonishing  the  elders  to  keep  the  fact  of  their  par- 
ticipation a  "secret  forever,"  and  to  lay  the  burden  of  the  crime  on  the 
Indians,  the  entire  party  left  the  Meadows  for  their  homes.  They  could 
easily  get  to  Leachy  spring  in  time  for  the  night's  encampment,  and 
Lee  could  easily  reach  his  home  early  in  the  forenoon  of  Sunday,  which 
is  the  day  that  Mr.  Platt  says  he  arrived  in  Harmony. 

Mr.  Platt  related  how  Lee  and  his  Indian  escort  rode  into  the  stock- 
ade fort  and  around  it  to  the  well  on  the  south  side.  In  his  autobiog- 
raphy Lee  says  that  the  Indians  gave  a  whoop  of  victory,  and  after  a 
repast  on  watermelons  departed  to  their  camp.  Mr.  Platt  avers  that  the 
Indians  made  no  oral  demonstration  of  victory. 

At  the  afternoon  meeting  of  the  Harmony  Saints,  according  to  Mr. 
Platt,  John  D.  Lee  gave  a  lurid  description  of  the  massacre,  and  that  he 
seemed  to  glory  in  the  deed  which  he  said  was  the  "will  of  the  Lord." 
Asked  if,  in  after  years,  Lee  exhibited  any  feeling  of  remorse,  Mr. 
Platt  answered  that  he  did  not;  that  Lee  was  the  same  jovial,  com- 
panionable man  that  he  was  prior  to  the  massacre. 

While  condemning  in  the  strongest  and  most  earnest  terms  the  leaders 
in  .the  massacre,  Mr.  Platt  averred  that  John  D.  Lee  was  the  personifi- 
cation of  hospitality  toward  all  who  called  at  Harmony,  and  related 
many  acts  of  kindness  and  generosity  to  himself. 

The  years  of  silence  on  the  massacre  have  passed,  and  the  people  of 
southern  Utah  now  talk  as  freely  of  the  tragedy  as  on  any  other  sub- 
ject, and  deeply  lament  the  ineffaceable  stain  that,  unjustly,  is  the  heri- 
tage of  those  who  were  residents  of  Iron  and  Washington  counties  at 
the  time  of  the  massacre,  but  who  were  guiltless  of  participation  in,  or 
sympathy  with,  the  deed. 

Many  stories  of  the  awful  incidents,  some  true,  others  false,  are  in 
circulation  among  the  people  or  southern  Utah.  Mr.  Platt  related  a  piti- 
ful story  about  Albert,  Hamblin 's  Indian  boy,  guarding  the  hiding  place 
of  the  girls  during  several  days,  and  secretly  sharing  his  food,  which 
he  took  over  to  the  Meadows  while  herding  cows  in  the  vicinity,  with 

57 


Kaehel  and  Ruth  Duulap  before  they  were  discovered,  ravished  and  mur- 
dered as  before  related.  But,  unfortunately  for  the  Indian  boy,  the 
story  is  not  true. 

Another  interesting  story,  of  the  truth  of  which  there  is  no  doubt, 
was  told  by  Mr.  Platt  as  follows: 

On  one  occasion  when  the  emigrants  were  out  of  water  they  sent 
a  child,  a  little  girl  dressed  in  white,  to  the  spring.  She  was  fired  upon 
but  escaped  unharmed. 

Notwithstanding  that  the  people  of  southern  Utah  are  familiar  with 
nearly  all  the  incidents  of  the  massacre  they  have  thus  far,  as  a  gen- 
eral truth,  failed  to  grasp  the  central  force  that  was  responsible  for  the 
devilish  act.  Their  abiding  faith  in  the  "divine  mission  of  Joseph 


Monument,    looking    southeasterly — Benjamin     and    Joseph     Platt    on     left 
and   right,   respectively.     September  16,    1910. 

Smith,"  and  their  certainty  that  the  Mormon  "prophets"  can  do  no 
wrong,  blinds  them  to  the  forces  that  unerringly  led  up  to  the  massacre. 
But  there  are  scores  of  young  men  and  women  who  are  now  demanding 
that  the  truth  be  told.  Their  reason  teaches  them  that  the  assigned 
causes,  or  reasons,  for  the  massacre,  are  insufficient  to  account  for  all 
the  facts.  They  are.  now  asking:  "Why  did  those  fifty-five  men,  pro- 
fessed followers  of  the  merciful  Son  of  God,  commit  a  crime  at  which  the 
civilized  world  stood  aghast?  If  it  was  murder  for  plunder,  why  is  it 
that  only  one  assassin  was  punished  for  the  crime  when  the  name  of 
every  one  of  the  murderers  was  known  to  the  leading  religious  and  civil 
authorities  of  Utah  at  the  time  of  Lee's  trial,  or  could  have  been  ob- 

58 


trained  had  there  been  any  inclination  to  punish  them?  "There  is  some- 
thing hidden,"  they  say,  "something  mysterious  and  inexplicable  as 
to  the  impelling  motive  to  the  crime.  What  is  it?" 

While  not  complete,  the  youth  of  Utah,  and  the  people  of  the  world, 
may,  in  the  foregoing  pages,  learn  the  basic  causes  that  lod  up  to  the 
Mountain  Meadows  massacre. 


With   its  bogus   claim   to  Divine  Origin,  and  to  the  Divine  Right  of  its 
"Prophets"  to  rule  the  world  politically  as  well  as  spiritually;  with  its  enor- 
mous  wealth  and    political   solidarity  by  which  it  compels  the   influence  of 
Manufacturers,    Merchants,    Railroad    Magnates,    United    States   Representa- 
Senaiors,  even  Presidents,  in  the  protection  and   perpetuity  of 

POLYGAMY 

Mormonism  is  an  EVER-INCREASING  MENACE  to  Individual  Effort,  and 
to  Personal  Liberty  as  enunciated  in  the  Constitution  and  embodied  in 
National  and  State  laws  of  this  Republic. 

The  recenty-published  volume  of  535  pages  (illustrated)  entitled 

Lights  and  Shadows  of  Mormonism 

By  Josiah  F.  Gibbs 

will  guide  you  by  sure  and  easy  paths  to  the  "inner  temple"  of  the  Mormon 
Anarchism  that  is  sleeplessly  working  to  overthrow  the  American  Republic. 

The  Author  of  "Lights  and  Shadows  of  Mormonism"  was  born  and 
reared  in  the  Mormon  Church,  and  his  more  than  fifty  years'  experience 
in  Utah,  lias  made  him  familiar  with  the  System's  history,  doctrines,  poli- 
cies, and  practices  from  its  inception  to  the  present  time. 

Of  the  hundreds  of  commendatory  letters  received  from  readers  of 
"Lights  and  Shadows  of  Mormonism" — students  of  this  Twentieth  Century 
Problem — the  following  highly-appreciated  recognition  of  the  'merits  of  the 
vvork  is  from  a  personal  letter  from  Mrs.  Angie  F.  Newman,  of  Lincoln, 
Nebraska,  and  is  published  with  her  permission.  Mrs.  Newman's  commen- 
dation is  more  highly  prized  because  of  her  intimate  knowledge  of  Mormon- 
ism and  her  unerring  grasp  of  its  political  danger  to  this  Republic.  During 
the  Nation-wide  fight  to  unseat  Apostle-Senator  Reed  Smoot — the  chosen 
emissary  of  the  law-defying  "Prophets,"  and  agent  of  the  Mormon  oligarchy 
Mrs.  Newman  was  one  of  the  prominent  figures  among  the  noble  and  patri- 
otic women  who  opposed  the  stealthy  advance  of  the  Utah  Hierarchy  to  a 
prominent  place  in  the  affairs  of  the  General  Government,  and  who  failed  be- 
cause of  the  political  bribes  held  out  to  Senators  by  the  religio-politico  Im- 
perium  in  Imperio  in  Utah. 

Mrs.  Newman  says : 

"With  unqualified  pleasure  I  have  read  every  line  of  "Lights  and  Sha- 
dows of  Mormonism' — pleasure  that  so  high  an  order  of  talent  has  been  en- 
listed in  a  theme  so  evasive,  so  illusive,  so  treacherous,  and  withal  so  world- 
wide in  its  scope.  .You  have  wrought  for  the  ages,  for  truth,  for  liberty. 
You  have  also  treated  the  subject  from  a  standpoint  untouched  by  others, 
and  have  left  its  pages  unmarred  by  bitterness." 

"Lights  and  Shadows  of  Mormonism"  may  be  obtained  from  your  local 
book-dealer  or,  failing,  order  direct  from 

The  Salt  Lake  Tribune  Publishing  Company 

Salt  Lake  City,  Utah 


Price,  Cloth,  $1.50,  postage  paid 


This  pamphlet,  "The  Moun- 
tain Meadows  Massacre,"  can 
be  obtained  through  any 
book  dealer  in  the  United 
States,  or  from 

The  Salt  Lake  Tribune 
Publishing  Company 

Salt  Lake  City 

at  the  following  prices,  post- 
•lid: 

One  *  $0'40 

Two   copio 
Three   copies  - 


Lithomount 
Pamphlet 

Binder 
Gaylord  Bros. 

Makers 
Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

PAT.  JAN  21,  1908 


